Smitroverse

Departures

2011-10-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

The summer and early fall have found this space largely neglected, as I consider guest posts from fellow writers and wait for news to emerge.

The title of this post does not refer to travel, but detours from my usual habits. The first detour is self-publication, which I have generally avoided in order to benefit from editorial judgment. The second detour is speculative fiction, which I have never attempted outside of the story below.

My reason for posting the story below is to make it available for possible inclusion in an anthology of Peak Oil-related fiction to be edited by John Michael Greer, a prolific author, Master Organic Gardener and blogger behind The Archdruid Report. By no means do I share all of Mr. Greer's ideas, and he graciously does not expect that of anyone; in fact, his work has added to my vocabulary the word "dissensus" and reminded me of the utility of multiple and often conflicting opinions. I find myself most in agreement with him regarding the necessity of acknowledging and addressing the finitude of global resources, including but not limited to oil, and preparing to live with increasingly obvious limitations.

With this in mind I present below my story "The Urgent, the Necessary," which runs about 2,500 words.

Thank you for whatever attention you care to give the piece.

THE URGENT, THE NECESSARY
The waiting is over. Whatever they contain, the quarterly performance reviews have been distributed. Besides the relief of no longer waiting, there’s a certain entertainment value in the distribution ritual. Like any number of other rituals, it is aggressively outdated, drawing on the paraphernalia of earlier times. At the end of the appointed work day, the Director himself, like his predecessors stooped and gone gray in a handful of years, oscillates among our workstations in alphabetical order rather than seniority, passing out envelopes signed across the left half of the seal and sealed again sealed with wax on the right. The specifications for this procedure must be guarded among files at a higher level of access, or successive directors have come to believe that they are, and do not question them.

While the Director’s ritual is a public performance, each of us greets the envelope with a private counterpart. Some tuck it into a pocket, or lay it slowly in a briefcase. A few crumple their envelopes, violating the folds, or grasp them by one end, like a knife handle, and hold them that that way as they walk out the door. Analyst Perez sets his unopened envelope face-up on the desk and takes out a bottle of something brown and strong to toast the contents, as if he were propitiating an unknown god. On more than one occasion others have helped him continue the ceremony after work. Analyst Barton tucks the envelope into her brassiere.

Because our actions vary no more than the Director’s, there is no apparently no correlation between the handling of the reports and what the handlers expect to read. “Apparently” is all that can be said, because we never discuss our reviews. There are too many other topics. On the way out this evening, or tomorrow morning, we will discuss the weather, as a matter of course, and as a factor in our work. We discuss family, sports, love lives or lack thereof, and even money. All of our small talk circles around a larger silence.

My ritual before not discussing my review—such as it is—consists of setting the envelope under a paperweight and waiting for my colleagues to leave. Then I slide it out from under the paperweight with my left hand, the one I could live without if the contents burned or shredded it, a less painful outcome than losing my position and descending from subject to object of energy calculations. I let the chunk of crystal resist, even turn over as the envelope comes free at the usual thirty-degree angle. It is long past time to think of imitating a magician pulling a tablecloth from under place settings. The bones that already are revealing themselves, precocious fossils emerging from the erosion of flesh, tell me as much. Such talents as I possess lie elsewhere.

At this point, when the envelope is cantilevered like a fishing pole, a diving board, a future over uncertainty, I tear open a corner and insert my right index finger. A letter opener seems too impersonal for the text that will extend my tenure for another three months or end it forever. Though I might be difficult to replace, leaving my successor with a steep learning curve, I am by no means indispensable. Analyst Montrose came to believe that he was, with predictable results, and he was widely acknowledged as the most brilliant of us all. Six years ago, on a hangover day when he merely skimmed his data sheets rather than read them cell by cell, he missed a sudden dip in projected supply and did not activate the protocol for issuing a shortage alert. The official explanation is hidden in thickets of polysyllables, saving face for the rest of us, but everyone knows the results as the Atlanta Gas Riot. When last I heard he was shining shoes near the ruins of the St. Louis Arch.

I raggedly open the flap and let the contents fall onto the desktop. At this time of day the landing is audible.

I withdraw the review and unfold it in two steady motions. Perhaps something of this magnitude in my life, if no one else’s, should blossom like a paper flower in water, or perhaps it should be unveiled like a statue. It doesn’t; it isn’t. Instead, my recent past and near future disclose themselves as marks on a page. This time, though, the review runs to two pages: along with the usual quantitative section and its twenty items, the optional qualitative section continues at great length. The comments are handwritten in the Director’s poor script, learned when almost everyone had a computer. Yet, like the rest of this ceremony, these comments are hallowed by obsolescence. All that remains for me is to sign the review and indicate my agreement, or at least my acquiescence, a final antiquated touch.

Deciding whether to sign seems to call for no less care than any other part of my work, but the habits of analysis do not end with the turn of a clock’s hand as the workday closes. In the last few hours terawatts of energy have in effect flowed through my synapses as I’ve allocated them according to source and destination. No thought, no drop, should be wasted.

That was the goal, the theoretical ideal or omega point toward which our training was directed. No shortages, no complaints, no surpluses that produced regional disparities in allowed energy use. Whither gasoline and gasoline? Where could brownouts settle and blackouts roll with the smallest losses of life and property?

Our performance could never attain perfection, as our instructors were the first to admit, but we were charged all day, every day with reducing the distance between the real and the ideal: the asymptotic null, better known as Zeno’s arrow forever approaching but never reaching its target.

But arrows reach their targets as we never can. The archer aims at what lies before his eyes and only an instant separates his intent and his action. The target can only move or be moved so far in that time. We have fewer options. As the image of a star conveys only how that star appeared light years ago, the data at our disposal summarized a state of affairs that had already changed. Populations shift, firms expand and contract, or they arise and vanish like bubbles.

We could only hope to minimize the damage, like goalkeepers. Also like goalkeepers, we were given equipment, and our pay was based on performance. We’ve always paid for our gasoline and electricity like everyone else, but it took little from our sizeable salaries. In my first years, when cars were still common, I took drives in the country with no destination in mind. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the speed and freedom, or the illusion of it, and the envious looks. Those were youthful indiscretions. That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway. Whatever they were, at some point in life a man has to stop working at cross-purposes with himself. I returned to doing a good job instead of having one.

All things old are new again: I circled back to the ethos of our charter class of employees at the Energy Distribution Agency. Once the climate warmed unto volatility, floods competed with droughts and stable conditions disappeared. Even rented experts would no longer testify that these were only cyclical variations of Earth and Sun, or that we had the fuel to make and run machines that would rescue us, fetishes engineered to the tightest tolerances. At that point things were not as they had been; science began to shape policy. We were recruited from the best universities, and our pictures appeared in magazines, and on websites. A newspaper called us “Stars of an age of limits,” and a business journal feature story on us bore the headline “Scouts on the Pareto Frontier.” We were celebrities, or as close to it as a person could get without singing or acting, and for people who didn’t act or sing we were paid very well.

In spite of our means, though, many of us did not marry, as I didn’t. This used to seem like coincidence, a small random cluster, but over time the pattern continued as our numbers grew, and as vacancies were filled. What started out as a prestigious job turned into a vocation, and some of us even spoke of it as a calling. Something larger than our private happiness was at stake.

This sense of vocation, or a penumbra of it, forces me to read and reread the evaluation like a sacred text. As with parsing data, I believe reading the comments hard and long enough should allow significations and shades of meaning to emerge and guide my next quarter’s work, as others have discerned courses of in tossed sticks, tea leaves or the entrails of a bird. Evidence for this belief waxes and wanes, or slips just beyond the horizon. Whatever I believe, it is certain that much of Arizona and New Mexico, and large portions of Texas, depend on me. All there are strangers I have made a point of not meeting or corresponding with. Personal acquaintance would cloud my judgment.

Evaluating the evaluation, I find that the quantitative section neither pleases nor surprises me. Shortages and complaints are up. So, too, are temporary surpluses, though they are resolved quickly enough; later records usually show that populations have declined as some leave for land to farm, or a place closer to work. But there is no getting around the fact that my overall efficiency ratings are down. No business has closed, no hospital blacked out without warning, no one left without supplies and turned to leather in the Western air. (I’ve seen pictures of what happened in Laughlin, and read several accounts. Analyst Burton hanged himself before he could be dismissed.)

The incident report section is filled with numbered entries, and incidents are never good. The larger events are accompanied by citizen complaints and bad press. Mine include browning out parts of the Phoenix area, which people don’t call the Valley of the Sun that much anymore, to keep electricity going to Tucson. I sacrificed retail in favor of homes both times, but next time my decision could down to homes versus homes. Or hospital versus hospital. The existing backup generators are aging, and replacements are slow to come online. But that is another day’s set of calculations.

From the ink thickets of the comments section arise a few phrases I haven’t seen since my grade school report cards, such as “seems distracted,” “a slowing of response time,” “appears to be engaging in non-work activities.” The latter go unspecified.

Signing off on these comments, on the report as a whole, would take only a stroke of the pen. Everyone goes through peaks and valleys of productivity, and in our training we were told to expect as much. It is only necessary to acknowledge the troughs, consent to a refresher course or two, and commit to improving performance. Then all is forgiven.

Yet this time I will not seek forgiveness, as there is nothing to be forgiven. At this point in my career it is not a matter of pride: analysts either outgrow their enfant terrible stage or move into the private sector. All that prevents me from signing signature is a regard for the facts. This, too, might amount to a flaw, but it is less self-indulgence than an occupational hazard. We are all deformed by our occupations, and perhaps our greatest choice is how to be deformed. Rightly or wrongly, I have chosen to be deformed by paying attention, and by holding fast to what I see.

The facts behind the evaluation apparently do not fit in its boxes. The largest incidents reported occurred on days when I most strictly applied the Southwest Distribution Equation. On days with smaller incidents, or none, I went to the edge of my discretionary range and sometimes beyond it. Too many factors lie outside the equation, or the available statistics are out of date. Households are growing larger near the main roads and power lines; a glance at yards and sidewalk on a mild day show as much. The gas and electricity have to follow them.

There is only so much we can do for the subdivision hold-outs. As if this weren’t enough, the tappers have found ways around the pipelines’ sensors, and hijackers more often than not outgun the armed guards on tanker trucks. After drugs were legalized the cartels had to diversify. What this means to me is that on any given day gas and supplies are overstated by five to ten percent. One day last year the difference reached twenty percent, and the Director took the next week off on the advice of his physician, in the sense of the word meaning press office.

My memos have covered my reservations, and confessed my furthest detours into discretion. When there is a reply, in eleven to twelve percent of the instances, my proposals are categorized as denied, taken under consideration, or presently unfeasible. A fourth category, adopted, exists exclusively in theory. I once wrote a memo inquiring as to the ultimate purpose of the equation, if it might involve something other than the allocation of energy, such as the appearance of allocating energy to prevent panic. Eighteen months later, this memo received no reply. Such replies as came noted that the issues I mentioned fell under the jurisdiction of the Review Committee, whose mandate was to review from time to time the regional equations. From time to time they did, those times lengthening, before being de-funded. Left behind are the formulae, templates set over conditions that fit them less and less.

With all due respect to the facts, I may initial some of the Director’s comments. I am distracted, and move slower than I should. I can lose much or all of a night’s sleep to examining news and other reports for trends, or modeling the outcomes of alternative equations.

Consulting my findings during the day is what must be meant by “non-work activity,” a point on which I will not sign off. This will require an explanation, and I will provide one, placed under a request for extra time to discuss my review.

There is no choice but to prepare the materials now, while there is no noise to distract me save the low buzz of electric current and the blood coursing past my eardrums. Tonight I will need to rest, if I can rest while knowing that what I don’t learn could change lives and fortunes, or end them. Depending on what happens, even more lives and fortunes could be in play, such as my own. The appearance of allocation might be served by a firing, an investigation, perhaps some other burnt offering to the public.

In any event, I have no children to provide for, and my own needs are few. There may be work in St. Louis.

Dowsing and Science Now Available

2011-06-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

Good things take time, but they do happen.

With that in mind I am pleased to announce the publication of my essay collection Dowsing and Science by Texas Review Press, which the Huffington Post has called one of the United States' "top fifteen feisty small presses." Individual essays in the book have appeared in publications including Amarillo Bay, American Arts Quarterly, Barcelona Review, Boulevard, Chelsea, Connecticut Review, In These Times, Laurel Review, Pleiades and Texas Review.

The author's work, though, makes up only part of a book.

The striking cover, shown above, features a photograph of a work by James Reynolds, incorporated into a larger cover design by Nancy Parsons of Graphic Design Group.

I am also grateful that three distinguished writers, Richard Burgin, Wayne Miller and Eric Miles Williamson, offered generous comments for the cover. Future posts will include what they have to say, as well as some background on Texas Review Press.

While Dowsing and Science will soon be available from online sellers across North America, Europe, Africa, Oceania and Asia, it can now be purchased from one particularly well-known merchant based in the United States.

Acceptance of Third Poetry Collection: Labor Day at Venice Beach

2011-05-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

Now that National Poetry Month is over, and I have learned that the answer to the question "Where's my cut?" is "nowhere", I can share some good news I learned of in mid-March and formalized in recent weeks.

To wit, my third book of poetry, Labor Day at Venice Beach, has been accepted for publication by the Cherry Grove Collections imprint of Wordtech Communications, which also published my second collection, Settling for Beauty, in 2005. Publication is scheduled for August of 2012.

While not all of the poems in Labor Day at Venice Beach have been published, the majority have. The title poem and another, "Four Fires", nominated for a Pushcart Prize, appeared in the Los Angeles Review, the periodical wing of Red Hen Press. Other poems appeared in a variety of print and online publications, including the following:

32 Poems

Alimentum

Arkansas Review

Babel Fruit

Gargoyle Magazine

The Helix Magazine

Hiss Quarterly

The Innisfree Poetry Journal

Lilliput Review

The Pedestal Magazine

Poems Niederngasse

Terrain

Umbrella

Verse Wisconsin

I am grateful to the editors of all of these journals, and I am pleased to have met several of them following the publication of my poems. If other individual poems in the collection are published in journals I will update this space and my acknowledgments page accordingly.

Some have said that writing is the easy part, though I'm not so sure about that. At any rate, now begins the part that's more than a little challenging for a dreamy introvert, such as many poets are. I have to obtain blurbs and locate venues for readings on whatever my book tour may turn out to be. I also have to cast about and see which journals are willing to review the book. In fact, I might even gear up for a launch party and a house reading or two.

Suggestions on these issues are welcome in the comments or by personal message.

In contrast to 2005, though, in 2012 I will not be planning a book launch at the same time as a wedding. With some lead time and a lot more knowledge than the last time out, I might get more recognition and maybe even some more sales.

This space will feature many more updates on book preparation and launching, but in the meantime, you read it here first.

Coming in August 2012: Labor Day at Venice Beach.

My Poem "From a Deposition" in The Lineup #4

2011-04-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

As noted previously in this space, I have a poem in The Lineup #4: Poems on Crime, edited by Gerald So and Reed Farrel Coleman.

Gerald has graciously asked contributors to write a post to which he would link from his own blog, and today is my day.

First, I want to publicly apologize for being a few hours late on this. My stats counter indicates people have been checking.

Second, I should note that my first choice of topic was actually the great gut-punch of a poem in this year's issue by Charles Harper Webb (a poem to which I was first introduced by my friend and colleague Henry Perez). Other contributors got there first, though, so my fallback is to discuss my own poem in the issue, entitled "From a Deposition." The discussion will be a lot more polysyllabic and cerebral than the poem itself, which is plain-spoken and visceral, so please don't let my prose scare you aware from my poetry.

The poem's title may need a little explanation. From time to time I find myself writing poems that take the form of excerpts from non-existent larger works. This is by no means original with me. While I am not enough of a scholar to say where that technique originated, I learned it from reading the stories of the great Argentine writer José Luis Borges. If you're up for a reading challenge, you may also want to check out emerging American writer Jenny Boully's book-length essay The Body, which consists entirely of footnotes to an absent text. This technique invokes the possibility of a wider reality while allowing the writer to address only the most important points and avoid details that would bore the reader.

Using this framework, the poem is a first-person account of rape, drawn from imagination rather than experience. The available information on rape victims' experience suggests that describing the crime and acknowledging its full (and horrendous) reality in its immediate aftermath proves difficult if not impossible, and the poem attempts to capture that ambivalence about discussing the subject with strangers in the legal and justice system. One may reasonably wonder if rapists depend on this difficulty in order to elude arrest and prosecution for their already underreported crime.

Some might argue that the poem (and the poet) are guilty of appropriation, or taking up a topic one is not entitled to address. This issue most often comes up when a writer addresses the experience of an ethnic or racial group other than his or her own, but in this case means writing about a victimization I have not experienced.

There are some people who won't be satisfied by any attempt to justify appropriation, but here's mine, which people can take or leave as they see fit: this poem, like many poems, came about as an experience of empathy, and it is the only poem I have ever written or am likely to write about rape. It is not part of a career-building strategy or a literary hoax. Moreover, like the editors and the other contributors, I am not doing this for the money, only the possibilities of art.

This long post at its end, I invite you to read my short poem "From a Deposition" and work by approximately two dozen writers, some very well known, in The Lineup #4.

Take a Chance on E.

2011-04-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

I'd like to paraphrase ABBA, as well as interrupt my usual self-promotion, to put in a word for a friend and colleague.

That is one Eric Hendrixson, whom I've known for about a decade from DC-area events including The Batcave and the Iota Poetry series. I've read and endorse his Bizarro Fiction novel with the highly improbable but strangely apt title Bucket of Face. Published by Eraserhead Press of Portland, Oregon as part of its New Bizarro Authors series last October, this novel features a noir sensibility and a MacGuffin-driven plot and has a cast of characters including various sentient fruits and vegetables, most notably a "hit tomato" whose softer side involves Michael Jackson fandom.

No, I am not making this up. Eric is.

But in these days of constrained resources and limited advertising budgets, Bucket of Face has not yet found all the readers it deserves. As noted in a piece on the book in the Washington City Paper, books in the New Bizarro Authors series must sell 200 copies before an author's second book is considered. Right now Eric's book is just a little over halfway there, which means that lots of people have not treated themselves to a story that will make you laugh out loud, challenge your sensibilities and, when you least expect it, deliver an emotional gut-punch.

You could spend bigger money on smaller thrills, but why bother when you can read Bucket of Face?

On Not Being a Poetry Star

2011-04-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

As you may very well know at this point, we are deep in the throes of National Poetry Month. If you were trying to forget about that, please accept my apologies.

As in most previous National Poetry Months, I am haunted by an all-pervasive question. To wit, "Where's my cut?"

To paraphrase the words of Nils Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap, "The answer is nowhere. Nowhere is my cut."

This is because, while National Poetry Month affords much-needed exposure to an art form that is all too easily overshadowed and shouted out in an era of spectacle, the exposure and such perks as exist go to those who are already poetry stars. In this instance, it must be said, "star" is a highly relative term. Even the best and most established poets in the United States, the ones with multiple prestigious publications and an impression collection of grants, are fortunate to have a book sell five thousand copies. Few have literary agents, and none of them needs a bodyguard or entourage. All are blessedly immune to the prospect of a reality television role.

Still, poetry stars get a few expenses-paid readings and maybe some extra sales this time of year, as well as the attention noted above. And the last time I checked, I am not one of them.

It might be a wise marketing move, a way of making a virtue of necessity, to say that such poetry stardom as exists probably isn't all that great, or that the poetry world is completely corrupt and toally composed of the "phonies" that Salinger's Holden Caulfield denounced in The Catcher in the Rye.

I can't honestly say those things, however. The fox in Aesop's fable may have consoled himself with the thought that the grapes he couldn't reach were probably sour grapes anyway, but I suspect that the grapes of poetry stardom (however few or small they may be) are actually kind of tasty. Put me down for two bunches, please.

Moreover, the poetry world is only partially corrupt and only partially composed of phonies, which in this instance means handing out scarce prizes and publication slots to friends, students or family. Sorting out which poets are and aren't inspires no small number of off-the-record debates.

Worrying a great deal about one's status in poetry, an oxymonoric phrase to be sure, is a decidedly First World problem. Doing so betrays both vanity and envy, at various times called character flaws or besetting sins. I am comfortable with either term, if not the reality it names.

One question that arises from this morass of self-involvement is, in short, "Why am I not a poetry star?" By extension, why aren't many others?

A variety of answers come to mind.

Inadequate achievement. Poets are not the best judges of how their work stacks up. Maybe my work to date doesn't deserve poetry stardom, or doesn't show signs of doing so any time soon, if ever. Maybe my best poems are far ahead of me or, heaven forfend, behind. The truth can hurt. We'll see how things shake out.

Inadequte achievement. See Item 1.

Insufficient charisma. As noted in Pulp Fiction, personality goes a long way. Some people command attention simply by being present, and all other things being equal that will help them to find audiences and sell books. Some of the rest of us are more retiring by nature and don't electrify a room by walking in.

Insufficient connections. In the prestige economy of poetry, connections are a kind of currency. One can inherit them by being born into a literary family or acquire them by attending certain schools, whether Ivy League stalwarts or better-known creative writing programs. I have more connections than some and fewer than others, and no amount of connections will help a poet whose work doesn't attain some theoretical minimum degree of quality.

Being insufficiently "beautiful" in a conventional sense and/or insufficiently photogenic. People gravitate toward good-looking and photogenic/telegenic people, especially those who are charismatic. It just works like that. If Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt start writing good poetry, or even average poetry, many of us poets are in trouble. As it is, poetry careers sometimes benefits from the poet's good looks. The same could be said for this as for Items 3 and 4: we play the cards we're dealt, and who wouldn't use the advantages they have?

Writing poems that may not find favor with current factions and fashions. Poems and poets can fall between the cracks that separate different schools, styles and publications. Falling between the cracks can happen to a good or very good poet, but it also happens to plenty of mediocre or worse poems.

See Items 1 and 2.

I may attain some level of poetry stardom, or maybe not. That's largely for others to decide. In the meantime, to paraphrase Allen Ginsberg, I will put my slight shoulder to the wheel.

Open Mic Bingo

2011-04-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

Since April is National Poetry Month, even non-poets may find themselves attending a reading or two. While many events include only featured readers, some events also include, or consist entirely of, an open mic segment in which all comers can sign up and perform for a certain length of time or text.

Like other gatherings, the open mic includes a variety of features and rituals. For the edification of newcomers, and for a variety of uses by experienced attendees, I present above a card for Open Mic Bingo (click to enlarge). Prompted by a conversation with my wife, this card also has antecedents in Meeting Bingo and the recent AWP Bingo card by Daniel Nester. Others may have done this previously and/or better, but this is the first attempt I know of. If I can observe enough by watching, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, I hope eventually to provide a second card for the ambitious or experienced player.

For now, game on!

This Book Is Priced to Move!

2011-03-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

If you've read this blog more than a time or two, you may have noticed the occasional reference to my second collection, Settling for Beauty.

Perhaps you thought about purchasing a copy but held off because you needed to save money.

Now you can do both--have my book and save money.

"How can that be?" you might ask.

That is a very good question, and I just happen to have an answer.

Right now Settling for Beauty is priced to move at one of the leading online booksellers. Yes, that one. You can have a 76-page book of accessible free verse for less than you might spend on a burrito.

If you have any remaining doubt as to whether you should purchase a copy of Settling for Beauty, this might help. Should you buy the book and not like it, I will refund the sale price of the book to the first five individuals who state that they do not like it and can provide proof of purchase.

Obviously, this works on the honor system. Anyone who likes the book but would lie to get a small refund has to live with himself, and I still won't be out much money.

If you are still on the fence, here is one more to chance to check out the link.

The Nervous Breakdown

2011-03-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

In spite of the recent and ongoing disaster in Japan, and a wide range of other national and global developments, the subject line does not describe my mental condition. Yet.

In this instance, The Nervous Breakdown (TNB) means a Los Angeles-based online journal whose home page sometimes bears the slogan "Fighting the power since 2006," so its age in Internet years is approximately a whole lot.

As it turns out, Poetry Editor Uche Ogbuji graciously gave me space for not one but two pieces earlier this month.

The first is my poem "In an Atrium". This short free verse poem may not be ripped from the headlines, as they say, but it is based on real events and home furnishings.

The second is a self-interview, which proved more challenging than I expected. Knowing the answers is one thing, but coming up with the questions is quite another.

Whatever you think of my work, you may want to poke around TNB's poetry archives, which include poems and self-interviews by poets including Mihaela Moscaluic, Kathleen Rooney and the legendary Lewis Turco. Also featured is work by Timothy Steele, with whom I've had the great good fortune of studying at the West Chester University Poetry Conference.

You'll find plenty else to like in the fiction, non-fiction and review sections, among others.

Work in The Lineup: Poems on Crime

2011-03-09T19:34:00.000-08:00

The other anthology shoe has dropped, in a good way.

My poem "From a Deposition" is one among many by more than two dozen poets in Issue #4 of The Lineup: Poems on Crime, edited by Gerald So.

I am grateful and amazed to see my own work in the volume as poems by far better-known writers such as crime novelists Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman, and poets Randall Watson and Charles Harper Webb.

If you're trying to convince someone that poetry touches on real life and real people, you may want to share this collection. It includes vice, theft, muggings, murder and post-traumatic stress disorder, all in language that is moving as well as accessible.

As a man once said to me while he was trying to sell me a possibly gold chain in Chicago, "Don't cheat yourself, treat yourself."

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

2011-02-18T14:29:00.000-08:00

I should have known. Tom Petty had this figured out a long time ago.

Today is February 18, and Dowsing and Science will be released on March 1. In any long view, that is the blink of an eye, an instant. Right now, though, that period of anticipation seems like an eternity.

My author's copies will arrive any day now, and then the reality will start to sink in. My publisher is graciously sending out review copies, a great weight off my shoulders, and I can move on to the business of hoping and fearing what reviewers might say.

Publicity arrangements so far include a blog tour with four stops scheduled in the next couple of months. Anyone who would like to extend that tour is welcome to get in touch.

Barring anything disastrous, there will be a Washington, DC launch event at some point in the spring. One venue that seemed promising for that purpose is closing at the end of this month, so event planning begins all over again.

Now there are readings and talks to schedule, and invitations are more than welcome. Fortunate are the writers who have agents and speakers' bureaus, and it would delight me to become one of them.

But for now there is the waiting. So close, and so far away, is the publication of Dowsing and Science.

In Time for Valentine's Day (of 2012)

2011-02-15T14:29:00.000-08:00

In all the excitement of recent weeks I have forgotten to mention an anthology publication that would have been perfect for yesterday but remains timely for Valentine's Days yet to come.

My poem "Intermezzo" (originally published as "First Blush") is included in the recently released Touching: Poems of Love, Longing and Desire, edited by Sari Friedman and D. Patrick Miller, which is the second volume of the Fearless Poetry Series from Fearless Books of Berkeley, California.

I am honored to appear in this volume with quite a few accomplished poets, who include but are not limitied to the following: Maureen Tolman Flannery, Linda Nemec Foster, David Knopfler and Sy Safransky. Last but by no means least among my neighbors in the anthology is Myra Sklarew, with whom I had the great good fortune to study while I was an undergraduate at American University.

Come for the poems, and stay for the photographs by Kelly Puleio.

AWP 2011 and Ideas for AWP 2012

2011-02-07T11:46:00.000-08:00

It was fun, and it was exhausting.

After a few days of attempting my best impersonation of an extrovert, I am now ready to sit back and make sense of AWP 2011 in Washington, DC, where I live.

There are many lovely people I see only there, or only there and a couple of other places during the year. I may sing their praises in a separate post if I can do justice to anything like the right number of people.

Yet the mind already turns to AWP 2012 in Chicago, where I have lived and studied; I grew up in the Far West suburb of Aurora.

While it seems unlikely that I will propose a panel for 2012 myself, a glance at this year's schedule suggested a few that others may wish to take on.

They are the following:

No Text Please, We're Students: Reluctant Readers in the College Classroom

Writing Auto-Erotic Identities

Libel and How to Get It Right

Dairy Queens: Gay Male Poets of Wisconsin

New Opportunities in the Teaching of Fortune Cookie Composition

He Takes Out a Felt Tip, You Take Out a Ballpoint: Writing the Chicago Way

Establishing and Maintaining a Lactose-Intolerant Writers' Group

When Your Promotional Strategy is Better than Your Writing: How to Hide the Gap

War of 1812 Bicentennial Reading

Desire and Ambivalence in the Rejection Letter

Stranger Things Have Happened, but Not Many: When Political Poetry Is Actually Good

Reconsidering William McGonagall

Deservedly Neglected Illinois Writers

The Barbaric Yawp, or Teaching Creative Writing to Dogs

A Celebration of Solipsism: New Confessional Poets

Prize Winners Display their Fabulosity

What Would Nelson Algren Do?

The Ego Has Landed: Projecting False Modesty Once Your Career Takes Off

I wish the best of luck to anyone who wishes to make these ideas a reality. Attribution of the original source will be most welcome.

Off to the Fair, or AWP and Me

2011-02-02T07:44:00.000-08:00

To paraphrase Emily Dickinson, and do so badly, because I would not come to AWP, AWP kindly came to me.

AWP, generally pronounced by its letters rather than as rhyming with Walt Whitman's "barbaric yawp", is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. The initials also serve as shorthand for the annual conference, which begins today in Washington, DC, where I live.

Avoiding travel in a snowstorm of historic proportions is a stroke of good luck, and there are others. Without the burdens of representing an academic institution or speaking on a panel, I can take in readings and other events, as well as check out the Bookfair without any great pressure.

Of course, I will have a few goals and one scheduled event. Tomorrow, February 3, I will be joining edtor Jessie Lendennie and other contributing poets in a signing of Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology at the Salmon Press table.

Other projects will involve freestyle hawking of my wares. Newest among them is my sonnet "Botanical Garden," which is the February selection of Broadsided. I will be handing out copies myself, and others are encouraged to print out and post the poem, illustrated by Ira Joel Haber.

Also debuting at AWP is Issue 9 of Los Angeles Review, which includes my unusually long free verse poem "Labor Day at Venice Beach"--inspired, as they say, by actual events.

I am also in the pleasantly odd position of promoting a book I don't yet have in hand. My essay collection Dowsing and Science, described on page 49 of the Spring/Summer Catalog of the Texas A&M University Press consortium, will be published on March 1. It will be a challenge to make people remember the title of a book they haven't seen. Still, the collection contains essays of varying lengths, tones, and subjects, including a few personal essays as well as a preponderance of intellectual and cultural criticism, and that variety makes Dowsing and Science a compact and reasonably priced choice for classroom use as well as personal reading. (Yes, I am selling my book here.) It is presently available for pre-order from the publisher and online sellers in the United States and nine other countries.

Finally, I will be reminding people that they can still obtain my collection Settling for Beauty, which recently received a favorable review from poet and fiction writer Eric Hendrixson.

In the midst of all this I will have the opportunity to see friends and pass out my card, which includes the URL for this blog. Comfortable shoes will be crucial.

And now it's off to the fair or, in the word of British novelist David Lodge, "Whee!"

Anthologies and Me

2010-12-13T12:40:00.000-08:00

If you've received money during the winter holiday of your choice, or if you've saved money by frugality and comparison-shopping, you may now feel the need to treat yourself with a new book or two.

Far be it from me to dissuade you from this impulse.

In fact, I have a few ideas that include my work among that of many other people, some far better known.

First up is The Expeditioner's Guide: Intrepid Tales of Awesomeness from the Open Road. This project by the editors of online travel magazine The Expeditioner includes, in addition to my poems "Andante" and "Travelogue," work on destinations including Copenhagen, Delhi, Kenya, Kosovo, Rome and Rwanda, among others.

Second is a project I should have mentioned about this time last year. Still, a thing of beauty is a joy forever, so I can recommend Chicago photographer Adeline Sides' book The Silver Series, an album of classically composed nudes accompanied by poems from a variety of Chicago-based and farther-flung authors.

Third, I would be remiss if I didn't again mention Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology, edited by Jessie Lendenni and published by Salmon Poetry of Ireland. Proceeds will be donated to dog rescue and welfare organizations in Ireland and Thailand.

Finally, I would suggest two anthologies that came into being well before I started this blog in 2008. The first is Northern Music: Poems about and Inspired by Glenn Gould, which I edited and which includes one poem of my own, as well as work by Philip Dacey and Leslie Monsour. The second is In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare. My two poems in the book are a retelling of the Seven Ages of Man and a sonnet that combines elements of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and the script of Goodfellas. Seriously. Also appearing among the collection's ninety poets are R.S. Gwynn, Diane Lockward and Leon Stokesbury.

Further updates on anthologies and more will be coming to this space soon.

Late Fall Harvest: Dowsing and Science

2010-12-06T14:47:00.000-08:00

As noted in a previous post, the harvest is coming in.

There will be a list of other items later this week, but for now I am pleased to report that my first essay collection, Dowsing and Science, appears on page 49 of the Spring/Summer Catalog of the Texas A&M University Press Consortium.

Published by consortium member Texas Review Press, whose authors include Richard Burgin, George Williams and Eric Miles Williamson, Dowsing and Science consists of essays appearing in publications such as Boulevard, Chelsea, and Pleiades. The topics range from the title essay to a discussion of Romanian history as symbolic condition and the survival value of esthetics. A few personal accounts appear in the collection as well, discussing my first experiences with salt water (a rude shock for a Midwesterner) and how in some circles I came to be known as a king. The bulk of the collection, though, is made up of what could be called the "Impersonal Essay" in a tradition practiced by Montesquieu, eighteenth-century English writers such as Addison, Johnson and Steele, and nineteenth-century American writers like Emerson and Thoreau.

I have been going over page proofs in the last several days and plan to make this collection the best possible experience for a wide range of readers.

Watch this space for a few more announcements in the days ahead.

Skin in the Game

2010-11-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

As noted in my previous post, director Joshua Caldwell is using creative project funding platform Kickstarter to support the film adaptation of my one-act play "Dig", which was produced by CurvingRoad at London's Old Red Lion Theatre in June of 2010.

I realized, though, that the appeal could become more credible by having skin in the game. With that in mind, I am now one of the film's backers and not just someone passing the hat. It would be indiscreet to mention the exact amount, but it is safely above the $1 minimum pledge.

I will name others backers in this space only if I have their permission first, but I can say that those I know include two UK-based writers and a friend I have known since high school.

If you want to know more about what is going on, I invite you to take a look at the Dig Short Film website, which went online in the last couple of days and is being frequently updated. You may also want to check out this post on Joshua's blog Hollywood Bound and Down.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments.

Dig: The Film

2010-10-27T12:15:00.001-07:00

As noted in this space a while back, director Joshua Caldwell has renewed his option to make a film based on my one-act play "Dig," which was produced in June at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London. Preserving the central conflict of the original, Joshua has clothed the narrative with a new set of details in the screenplay, and he will be making the film as a new work of art in its own right, as described on his blog Hollywood Bound and Down.

At this point Joshua has nailed down locations in Southern California and has finished casting. The leads will be Mark Margolis, who has appeared in numerous films, among them The Wrestler, and Aaron Himelstein, whose credits feature appearances on television series such as House M.D. and films including Fast Food Nation and High Fidelity.

The adaptation of "Dig" is what Joshua has called a "passion project" that will be shown largely on the film festival circuit. As such, it won't be making anyone rich, and as a matter of fact he is continuing to seek backers for post-production expenses.

Through the magic of Kickstarter, anyone can become such a backer by pledging $1 or more to the short film adaptation of "Dig". In the last two days $796 has been pledged to the total of $6,000 needed by 4:09 p.m. EST on November 24, the day before Thanksgiving. Pledges of various sizes entitle backers to premiums that range from acknowledgments in the credits to a private screening with the cast and crew to the opportunity to appear as a featured extra. Larger backers can even be listed as Associate Producer or Executive Producer. So far the project has 19 backers, including author Duane Swierczynski, whose book The Wheelman I have read and can wholeheartedly recommend.

I invite you to make a pledge to the short film adaptation of "Dig" if you are at all able, and please pass this information along if you aren't. Joshua works like a dog, and he has been a consummate professional in his dealings with me. Backing this project will mean being involved in an early stage of what promises to be a remarkable career.

New Poem in Zócalo Public Square

2010-10-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to note that my previously unpublished poem "Debt" appears on Zócalo Public Square, a Los Angeles-based but wide-ranging web site that serves as a platform for both online and in-person discussions of public and social affairs, including a series of upcoming events with prominent speakers in their respective fields.

My poem briefly questions the use of the expression "The wolf is at the door" to talk about debt. In short, wolves shouldn't be talked about that way. Accompanying the poem is a magnificent wolf photograph taken by Doug Brown.

I am by no means the only person in the arts to have an interest in wolves. Perhaps the most prominent advocate of wolves among artists is French pianist Hélène Grimaud, who co-founded the Wolf Conservation Center and continues to spend time there.

Watch this space for further news in the near future. I soon hope to make announcements on a couple of fronts.

Poems in "Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology"

2010-10-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

Virtually anyone who knows me is aware that my non-literary enthusiasms include dogs. In fact, it would be fair to say that many of my favorite people go about on four feet. I have also grown increasingly interested in dog and other animal welfare issues.

Sometimes, though, enthusiasms cross paths, and I have ended up writing poems about dogs. Some of those poems have succeeded.

I am thus greatly pleased to note that two of those poems, "Aubade" and "Policy", will appear in Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology, forthcoming in November from Ireland-based and internationally known press Salmon Poetry.

I first met Jessie Lendennie, Salmon's publisher and the editor of this anthology, in early 2004. I was wandering through the Book Fair at the Chicago AWP Conference and stopped at the Salmon table, where we ended up talking about, well, dogs.

To mix animal metaphors for a moment, I am a very small fish in this anthology's pond. Far better-known writers in Dogs Singing include but are not limited to Kelly Cherry, Stephen Dobyns, Jane Hirshfield, Maxine Kumin, Les Murray, Alicia Ostriker, Richard Peabody and C.K. Williams.

The poets included are not being compensated for their work. Instead, proceeds will be donated to canine welfare organizations in Ireland.

With the holidays not all that far away, Dogs Singing would make a wonderful present for the dog and/or poetry lover in your life, and maybe for yourself.

Settling for Beauty and Lessons of Publishing

2010-10-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

Timing may not be everything, but it counts for a lot, especially in promoting books.

I learned this the hard way with my first two collections of poetry. The first, The Hypothetical Landscape, was published as part of the Quarterly Review of Literature Poetry Series in 1999 and is presently out of print. (I may see what I can do to change that.) At the time the book came out, though, I was working two part-time jobs with no benefits and was in no position to attempt a book tour or any other major promotional efforts. Nor did it help that I wasn't hooked into the academic networks that lead to of readings and events.

I did not make the same mistakes when my second collection, Settling for Beauty, was published in 2005. I can't even say that I made new and different mistakes. But I did learn one valuable lesson: if you are publishing a book and planning a wedding from a distance, and doing all that while working full-time, something has to give.

For me, like the vast majority of people, not working was not an option. Even less of an option was changing wedding plans. So fully promoting Settling for Beauty gave way at the time, and I have no regrets about that, per Edith Piaf, especially now that I am about to celebrate my fifth anniversary with the wonderful Paula Van Lare.

There won't be quite as much on my plate when it's time to promote my forthcoming book of essays; there will be more to come on that. Things should also be similarly tranquil when my third and fourth collections of poetry come out. In a moment of guarded optimism I say "when" rather than "if" because one of the two manuscripts, a collection of formal verse, has been a finalist in two contests.

But for now I hope to give at least a little attention to Settling for Beauty. If you follow the link you can see a few sample poems. Another poem in the collection appeared on Verse Daily.

Virtually any writer is going to look back on older work and think of how it could be better. I am no exception. Still, new poems (and essays and fiction, among other things) need to be written, and time is short.

In any event, I am still very fond of that book, and I think the linked samples will give you an idea of why you might become fond of it as well. You are welcome to let me know what you think.

The title of that book, in case you don't feel like scrolling up, is Settling for Beauty.

New Poem in Verse Wisconsin

2010-10-04T13:16:00.000-07:00

Having recently interviewed in this space a couple of authors I am also grateful to call my friends, I will use today's post to mention the publication of a new poem of my own.

Based on actual events of several decades ago, my poem "First Memory, Wisconsin Dells" appears in the current issue of Verse Wisconsin, edited by Sarah Busse and Wendy Vardaman.

I don't write or publish much directly autobiographical poetry these days, because whatever strengths I have lie largely elsewhere, but now and then opportunities present themselves.

I will be saying more about my publishing history and future in the days ahead. Please check back if you are curious.

Interview with Breakout Suspense Novelist Henry Perez

2010-09-28T16:19:00.001-07:00

In the wake of last week's interview with novelist Sue Guiney, which garnered pageviews from around the world, it is now my privilege to post another interview, this time with Henry Perez (pictured), author of the critically acclaimed thrillers Killing Red and Mourn the Living, a number one Amazon Kindle bestseller about which Publishers Weekly said, "Keeps the adrenaline pumping right through to the ending." I've read both books and can vouch for that.

I've known Henry since we were both high school students and aspiring writers in Aurora, Illinois, a past alluded to in one of his responses below. Now we are both published authors, and we took a break from our long, strange trip to have the discussion below by email.

Over to Henry Perez, who knows that as far as online layout goes, I'm a pretty good writer.

JDS: Tell us a bit about your new novel, Mourn the Living.

HP: Mourn the Living is the second novel in a series featuring Alex Chapa, a skilled and determined Chicago area newspaper man. The book begins five days after the end of Killing Red, my first thriller. In Mourn the Living, Chapa takes over another writer's beat after he dies under unusual circumstances. Initially, Chapa buys into the official story that his colleague's death was an accident. But the more digging he does, the more Chapa begins to believe it was murder. Soon, Chapa becomes the target of some very dangerous people.

I wanted to explore the question of how far a political or business matrix would go to protect a killer who serves its purposes. We all know that governments and politicians, whether local, state, or national sometimes cover for unsavory and even dangerous people who can help them get what they want. In Mourn the Living, Chapa finds himself fighting against a system that is determined to shield one of its own at any cost.

Chapa's personal story—his struggles as a father, the threats to his career, and the challenge of trying to maintain a relationship with the woman he loves—forms a thread that runs through both books.

JDS: How would you compare Mourn the Living to your first novel, Killing Red?

Killing Red was written as a stand-alone. It was only later, after I landed a book deal and sensed the interest in and possibilities of a series that I began thinking in those terms.

Killing Red is meant to be like a thrill ride for readers—fast, a little scary, and with a lot of twists and turns. It begins with Chapa conducting a death row interview with Kenny Lee Grubb. Fifteen years earlier, Chapa had made a name for himself when he broke the story of Grubb's capture after a would-be victim escaped and led police back to the killer's house. But instead of the usual claims of innocence or religious conversion that define most death row interviews, Grubb tells Chapa that a copycat killer is retracing his steps, and that the last victim will be Annie Sykes, the woman who got away fifteen years earlier. That sets Chapa off on a desperate search for Annie, a woman who does not want to be found.

The entire book takes place over a six-day period, and it's very tight story. Both are thrillers, but Mourn the Living has strong mystery elements as well.

JDS: What are the similarities and differences between Alex Chapa and Henry Perez?

HP: Most of the similarities are superficial—we both worked for newspapers, we're both Cuban-Americans, but beyond that, there isn't much.

That's not to say that my own experiences haven't informed the character of Alex Chapa. Of course they have. But not necessarily in the direct ways some readers might imagine.

The character of Alex Chapa emerged from my fascination with people who are brilliant at their jobs, but incapable of managing the rest of their lives. We’ve all heard about politicians, athletes, CEOs who succeed in ways that few others ever could, but who struggle with the everyday challenges that are second nature to most of us. Chapa is a great reporter. His job is his refuge from the rest of his life, which is something of a train wreck.

Both books include chapters written from the killer's point of view. What kind of research did you do to make those chapters plausible, and how did it feel to write them?

Those are often some of the most difficult chapters to write, and also among the most important. There are only a couple chapters from the killer's POV in Killing Red, but one of them, a flashback to when he was a child, was very difficult to write. It's a rough chapter, but also one of the best things I've written. There's a chapter in Mourn the Living, a flashback to a Halloween night, that was also quite difficult for me, but I’m very pleased with the way it turned out. I've received a great deal of email about it.

I have done quite a bit of research. Some of it before starting each book, more during the revision process.

JDS: Every writer seems to have different work habits. How do you make your particular magic?

HP: I don't claim to write every day. But I do work at writing every day, be it on the business end, doing research, jotting down new ideas, or trying to flesh out some old ones.

I tend to write in the afternoon and late at night. It takes me four to six months to finish a first draft. Revision takes another two to three months, and by then I'm working on the next book.

Unless it's absolutely necessary to the writing process, I don't stop while I'm writing to double-check a trivial fact or to research a more significant point. I'm a big believer in the potential dangers of paralysis by analysis, so I keep a notebook next to me on the desk and as I go along I write down every detail that needs checking. By the time the first draft is finished, that notebook is pretty full. It's then that I go back through and verify everything, and investigate any details that I’m unsure of.

JDS: Do you outline?

HP: Not in the traditional sense of plotting out the entire or most of the book beforehand, no. I work off a rough outline that I'm constantly revising. I start by knowing the beginning, end, and several pivotal scenes in between.

JDS: Have you ever experienced writer’s block, and if so how have you dealt with it?

HP: I’ve never had that issue. I'm not personally familiar with the concept of writer's block, have no idea how it's supposed to feel. I think my experience as a newspaper reporter may have a lot to do with that. When you’re on a deadline, writer’s block becomes a luxury that you cannot afford. I have had days when I knew my writing was sub par, but you just have to get past that, write through it. You can fix it later, that's what the revision process is for.

JDS: What path did you take to get from being an aspiring writer to being a published author who is now selling a lot of books?

HP: I learned all that I could about the publishing business before I jumped in. Looking back now, that played a vital role in my initial success. Of course you still have to write a book that an agent wants to represent and an editor is willing to buy, but I was able to avoid a number of common mistakes by knowing what they were ahead of time.

JDS: You've also had some very interesting experiences with e-book publication. Tell us a little about those.

HP: Until recently my e-book experience was limited to a novella I wrote with J.A. Konrath called Floaters. We launched it as an Amazon Kindle exclusive just before the release of Killing Red. Floaters was a steady seller right from the start, and even cracked the bestseller lists in some sub-genre categories. Though I have long believed that e-books will continue to grow in popularity and could eventually overtake print, I wasn’t certain to what extent they could help my career at this point.

A lot of things changed after my publisher ran a promotion though Amazon Kindle, and Mourn the Living jumped to the top of the e-book bestsellers list. It remained at number one for several days, and in the top 10 for just over a week. During that time, the e-book version of Killing Red cracked the top 50. Its previous high had been around 1,200.

JDS: What sort of impact has that had on you and on your career?

HP: This sudden success has changed my perspective on not just e-books, but also my future path as a writer. I now have a large base of e-book readers, and I’m looking into various possibilities for writing directly for that market. Establishing and maintaining an e-book presence, beyond our print titles, is not just a good idea anymore, it’s a necessity for every author.

JDS: How have audiences responded at your readings and signings?

Audiences have been great. There has been a difference between my appearances for Killing Red and the more recent ones in support of Mourn the Living. I spent a lot of time last year introducing myself to readers who had no idea who I was. That's still the case to some extent, but now I'm also meeting people who read Killing Red and liked it. That's more than cool.

There are also people at my appearances now whom I met at signings or conferences last year. In the past, the only familiar faces belonged to people with whom I shared a last name or a sordid history.

JDS: What are the most memorable or surprising experiences you've had so far in promoting your books?

HP: There have been a number of them. Last month I did an appearance at The Mystery Bookstore in Los Angeles, a great store that I’d been to several times over the years, though never as an author. As I was getting ready to go, Bobby McCue and Linda Brown, two very cool booksellers, brought out a huge prison ledger from the 30s or 40s. Mystery authors have been signing their names in that book for many years, and they asked me to sign it. I spent the next twenty minutes flipping through it and looking at all the signatures before adding mine. That was quite an experience.

I did an appearance at Jake’s Bagels, a longtime Aurora, Illinois restaurant that I used as a setting in Mourn the Living. It’s a great place, and the reception I got was incredible.

There have been many others, and each has been memorable in their own way.

JDS: Which writers would you recommend--in any genre--and what are you currently reading?

HP: I read a lot of crime novels, which is fine because this is a terrific period for the genre. In no particular order: Marcus Sakey, Victor Gischler, Elmore Leonard, J.A. Konrath, Carl Hiaasen, Blake Crouch, David Morrell, David Ellis, Ross Thomas. That’s ten, and I could easily list another two dozen or more.

I read more than one book at a time. It’s a habit I picked up back in high school. So I’ll give you the last three books I read–all are recommended–The Deputy by Victor Gischler, Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell, and Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski. I’ve also read several very good manuscripts in the past couple of months, some for critique, others for blurbs, but I’m not at liberty to discuss those.

JDS: What are you working on now?

HP: Right now I’m writing two books, the next Alex Chapa thriller and a stand alone. Joe Konrath and I are working on a follow-up to Floaters, titled Burners. It should be launched as an Amazon Kindle original later this year. There are also a couple of other projects in the works right now, so I’m definitely staying busy.

JDS: What's next for Henry Perez?

HP: More author appearances and lots of writing. I’ll be in San Francisco next month for Bouchercon, the biggest crime fiction conference of the year. Then, in November, I’ll be in Wisconsin for Murder and Mayhem in Muskego, and in Miami for their huge book fest. In between I’ll be making a few more appearances at bookstores and libraries in the Chicago area.

JDS: Thank you very much, Henry. I'm looking forward to following your progress.

Interview with Novelist, Poet and Playwright Sue Guiney

2010-09-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

As noted in my last post, this blog is adding a couple of features. The first is occasional author interviews, and guest posts, beginning with today's interview,

conducted by email, with the fabulous Sue Guiney, whose new novel A Clash of Innocents launched yesterday in London as the first title from UK press Ward Wood Publishing. Her previous books include the play in verse Dreams of May and her first novel, Tangled Roots.

(The second interview, with breakout suspense novelist Henry Perez, is scheduled for Tuesday, September 28.)

I met Sue during my stay at Anam Cara Writer's and Artist's Retreat in County Cork, Ireland, made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and we have remained in touch since then. Sue's UK and US charity CurvingRoad produced my one-act play "Dig" in June of 2010, and I will soon be discussing that amazing experience in this space.

Now on to the questions.

JDS: How does a Londoner originally from New York end up writing a novel set in Cambodia?

SG: I’ve always had terrible wanderlust. If there’s a chance to go someplace new, I go. Several years ago, our family had the opportunity to go to Cambodia on a service trip to help build houses for the poor through the charity Tabitha, and to work in a children’s home. I had never been to Asia before and had no idea my experience there would lead to a novel. If anything, my head was still full of my first novel, Tangled Roots. But the place got hold of me, and a few years later I found that I had a story about it that needed to be written.

JDS: How would you describe A Clash of Innocents? Who are the characters, and what situations do they face?

SG: Deborah, a 60-year-old American expat, is on her way back to the “Khmer Home for Blessed Children” which she has run for ten years. A young woman in her twenties is waiting for her. Another American, but with flip flops and a backpack, she asks, “Are you Deborah Young? I’m here to help.”

So begins a story of hidden identities and questioned motives. Who is this young woman? Who is Deborah? Who are any of the displaced Westerners who find themselves raising the leftover children of Cambodia’s violent past? Against her better judgment and building suspicions, Deborah allows the young woman, Amanda, to stay, but when a sick infant is left on their doorstep, the horror of the young woman’s past catches up with her and infiltrates the orderly workings of Deborah’s home. The precarious well being of Deborah’s “family” of forty forgotten Khmer children is jeopardized, as is her own emotional life. I should also add that a wonderful, larger-than-life Australian called Kyle comes to the rescue, in a variety of ways.

JDS: Since Cambodia is a place relatively few Westerners visit, what do you think we should know about the country?

SG: Most everyone knows about the Vietnam War. And most people also know about the horrible atrocities Cambodia’s own government at that time, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, committed against its own people. What most people don’t know, though, is that many of the Khmer Rouge officials are still in power and the government, though not as violent, is still very corrupt. The UN has finally, after nearly 50 years, been successful in holding a Tribunal to bring these murderers of the past to justice, but the Tribunal itself is fraught with its own obstacles. Cambodia is a very small country caught between larger, wealthier ones and so is easily forgotten. There is unbelievable poverty and neglect. We in the West who care about the welfare of other, less fortunate countries, often forget about Cambodia and think it’s “all better now.” It’s not, and that was shocking for me to see.

JDS: How would you compare the process of writing this novel to the process of writing your first novel, Tangled Roots?

S.G. Very different! Tangled Roots took me nearly 9 years to write! A Clash of Innocents took me about two. I knew a bit better what I was doing and I trusted myself much more. But the biggest difference is that I outlined the plot and structure before I started. I am now convinced that plot and story line do matter! This made the writing more even and coherent from the start. Although I was flexible to change course throughout the process, from the beginning I knew where I was starting and where I was going, and I knew my characters.

JDS: For you, how does writing a novel differ from writing poetry or drama?

S.G: That’s a hard one. I love them all, but they all come from different places within me and take different mindsets. In some ways, writing a novel is a combination of all genres. There are passages in my novels where I allow myself to write as if I was writing a poem (although I do believe all prose needs the attention to language and rhythm that poetry demands). And I seem to set up scenes in my novels and visualize them the same way I do with plays. Maybe that means plays and poems can be seen as subsets of novel writing. They can stand on their own, but a novel needs everything. And for me, who seems to get bored easily and refuses to choose one form over another, that seems to work!

JDS: What would you like to say about your publisher? I know there's an interesting back story.

SG: That sound you hear is me taking a deep inhale of breath…..my publisher, Ward Wood, is for me proof of that old Buddhist adage “the universe will provide.” I had a good but also very difficult experience with my first publisher, bluechrome, who went bankrupt (not my fault – really). One of the principals of Ward Wood, Adele Ward, had also been published by bluechrome, so we knew each other. We both were at a book launch of a friend’s poetry collection and she started asking me “what if” sorts of questions about an idea for a new publisher. I was intrigued and excited. I’ve decided that the publishing world is in such upheaval now that new approaches are mandatory. I also know that my work isn’t the sort of mass media stuff that big name publishers are mostly putting out now. So when Adele asked if Ward Wood could publish my novel as their first book – sort of a double launch – I was thrilled and jumped at the chance. It’s been nothing but joy since. It just goes to show, you really do have to get away from your writing desk and out into the world. Meet people, talk to strangers. You never know what will come of it.

JDS: What are you working on now?

SG: I now understand that it takes a year to publicize a new book, and so I have set this year of 2010/2011 aside to do just that and not try to do much creative writing. But I took the summer to start researching and outlining my next novel. All I’ll say is that it deals with music and medicine and will be partly set in rural West Cork, Ireland. JD – you know that area well, as I do, and I’ll be returning to the writing retreat, Anam Cara, to do some more research and thinking in early December. But I can’t fall too much in love with those new characters. My heart must stay in Cambodia for a while.

JDS: What's next?

SG: More writing of all sorts, more publishing (I hope), more traveling. And of course, my theatrical adventures through my charity CurvingRoad (http://www.curvingroad.com/). Producing your play was such fun and so exciting, I hope to keep doing that for other artists working in the theatre.

Thanks so much for giving me this chance to navel gaze and ramble on. Hi to all your blog friends out there. It’s been great fun!

The Harvest Begins, and Things to Come

2010-09-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

Labor Day is behind us, the days are a little cooler, and the harvest is starting to come in, both literally and metaphorically.

My yield includes a few poems recently published online.

The first is "Along the Potomac," which appears in the current issue of Able Muse. I would like to take this opportunity to thank editor Alex Pepple for including me among much better-known poets.

The second and third are two poems, "Nocturne" and "Elegy", which appear in the current issue of Innisfree Poetry Journal, graciously edited by Greg McBride.

Finally, The Poetry Section of New York blog The Awl, edited by poet Mark Bibbins, features my poem "The Vikings". No football team is explicitly cited.

In other news, this blog will be introducing a couple of changes. The first will involve interviews and guest blog posts. Later this month, first up will be Henry Perez, author of the thrillers Killing Red and Mourn the Living. My second guest will be Sue Guiney, author of the novel Tangled Roots and the soon-to-be-released novel A Clash of Innocents.

The second change will be my occasional commentary on literary topics other than my own publications and events.

Before long I also plan to provide a small report on what I did during my summer vacation.

You may want to keep checking in.

Back In the Saddle

2010-08-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

This blog has been quiet for a while, but now I am back in the saddle again, with quite a bit to report.

First, I am pleased to note that my poem "Carpe, Carpe" was selected for the Goodreads June newsletter, which is sent to more than a million subscribers. I am very grateful for the comments I have received.

Also in June, my short story "Fighting Words" appeared in CellStories, which can only be accessed by mobile phone. This fiction-only wireless journal is the creation of Daniel Sinker, formerly of Punk Planet.

More recently, my poem "Washington Memoir" appears in the 2010 issue of Bumbershoot, the humor wing of Kate Bernadette Benedict's journal Umbrella.

In other new releases, my one and only vampire story, "Exit Interview" (sampled in the preceding link) appears in the current issue of Australia's Skive Magazine.

Finally, I am pleased to say that director Joshua Caldwell has renewed his option to adapt my one-act play "Dig" to film, and he is presently working on a new draft of the screenplay.

There will be more about the stage version of "Dig" shortly, as well as other summer doings, with a few more announcements after that.

The late summer and much of the fall promise to be harvest time indeed.

April Wrap-Up

2010-04-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

April ends with a couple of interesting developments.

First, I have finally gotten an answer to the question, "National Poetry Month is here again, so where's my cut?" That answer came on April 20, when Portland writer and lit blogger Dave Jarecki selected for that day's poem my very own "Questions on Recruitment". This answer was punctuated by learning that my book-length manuscript The Killing Tree was a finalist for the New Criterion Poetry Prize, which was awarded to Ashley Anna McHugh.

Second, I am getting more and more of a Velveteen Rabbit feeling of being real as a playwright. I have sent in my final round of major revisions on my play "Dig," which is now listed on the "Coming Soon" page of London's Old Red Lion Theatre. Actors have been cast, lighting and design decisions are underway, and rehearsals begin on May 17. I won't be able to absorb the full magnitude of events, though, until my wife Paula Van Lare and I go to London during the week of June 21 and actually see a couple of performances for ourselves. I can't expect the audience to shout "Author! Author!" following the performance, but if it happens I won't be stopping anyone.

New Poem in the Los Angeles Review

2010-04-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

I have returned from the jamboree and madness of this year's conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) in Denver with new contributor's copies of several journals.

One of these is the Spring 2010 issue of the Los Angeles Review, published by Red Hen Press.

After years of revisions, including those based on very helpful suggestions from colleagues at the Anam Cara Writer's and Artist's Retreat during a 2008 visit, I was finally able to get this poem into a publishable form. And a form that met with the approval of a prestigious journal.

I am delighted and grateful to be found in the same issue as authors including (but not limited to) Rick Bass, Tess Gallagher, Barry Lopez, Alison Luterman and Barry Lopez.

My thanks go out to Editor Kate Gale and to Poetry Editor Laurie Junkins for taking an interest in my work.

New Essay in Boulevard

2010-03-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

I am delighted and still a bit amazed to say that the current and 25th anniversary issue of the now-legendary journal Boulevard includes my essay "Mere Esthetics," which argues for beauty as a matter of necessity rather than luxury and discusses what happens when we disregard that need.

This issue also includes far, far better-known contributors such as Albert Goldbarth, Billy Collins, David Kirby, Carl Phillips, David Lehman, Alice Hoffman, Stephen Dixon, Floyd Skloot,
Madison Smartt Bell and Marvin Bell.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank editor Richard Burgin and his colleagues for their interest in my work and for including me among such distinguished company.

Dig: The Fundraiser

2010-03-05T14:07:00.000-08:00

We are getting closer and closer to putting on a show.

On Thursday, March 4, CurvingRoad (a registered nonprofit in both the United States and the United Kingdom) held its fundraiser for the theatrical event entitled "The Next Curve: Two One-Act Plays" which will run from Tuesday, June 8 until Saturday, June 25 at The Old Red Lion Theatre in London (that London, yes). My play "Dig" and I will have the privilege of sharing the bill with Scottish playwright Michael Hart's "No More, Salvator."

According to CurvingRoad co-director Sue Guiney, the well-attended fundraiser was "fantastic," with drinks and nibbles. There were new supporters and, in her words, "People stayed late and there was a theatrical buzz."

And funds were indeed raised, as the reception brought in about £3,000. So far, so good.

But as Sue explains here, there is a long way to go. The total expenses of the production are estimated at some £20,000, which in U.S. dollars is, well, a lot.

With this in mind, I would urge the financially able to make a tax-deductible donation to CurvingRoad here by way of PayPal or credit card. To quote Sue again, "You’d be amazed at how those $25 gifts add up."

I would be willing to be amazed.

If I haven't yet persuaded you, I will leave you with my message of gratitude to those in attendance at the 1901 Arts Club, which was read on my behalf by playwright and actor Leo Richardson:

I want to begin by saying that I truly and deeply regret not being able to join you this evening. My reasons are in part purely selfish. As this event is taking place, I am at my day job in Washington, DC, editing texts of uncertain quality and interest. I also trust that your food, drink and entertainment will be far superior to anything that I experience in the course of a day’s work.

More importantly, I regret not being to thank you in person for your support. Altruism, especially in the form of generosity to a stranger, represents one of the happier mysteries of existence, and those of us who are beneficiaries of such generosity can virtually never expect or demand it, let alone feel entitled to it. This is particularly true in the arts, where so many individuals, projects and programs ask for support. I am therefore amazed as well as grateful that you are willing to offer your support and join us in this adventure, with all its risks as well as its rewards.

Working with the directors and affiliates of CurvingRoad, I hope to honor your gifts of time and resources by doing everything in my power to ensure that the development of my play “Dig” culminates in a high-quality production that will contribute to a memorable evening of theater. I should also note that my experience with CurvingRoad has given me the confidence to revisit other projects that I have left aside for far too long.

At this point I do not wish to take much more of your time. You have already been generous in a variety of ways. I hope you are having a lovely time, and with luck I will meet some of you in June at the Old Red Lion.

Again, thank you.

"Dig" Has Found a Home

2010-02-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

The truth can now be told.

As noted here, "Dig" will be presented as half of a CurvingRoad program entitled "The Next Curve: Two One-Act Plays" from June 8 to June 23 at The Old Red Lion Theatre in London, which is well known and highly regarded as both a performance venue and a place to raise a pint. In fact, productions at The Old Red Lion Theatre are reviewed in publications such as Time Out London and The Guardian.

As noted in the post immediately below, there will be a fundraiser for the event on Thursday, March 4 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the 1901 Arts Club. Scottish playwright Michael Hart and I will be preparing statements to read at the fundraiser.

If you don't happen to find yourself in London on that point (or even if you do and can't attend), you can also make a tax-deductible donation through the very convenient PayPal button found on this page. Any amount is welcome in these trying times.

Fundraising is something at which I don't have a great deal of experience, but CurvingRoad co-director Sue Guiney tells me that this is something done by everyone in theater who is any kind of player, and now I apparently am one.

I'm always the last to know.

Dig: Workshop and Fundraiser

2010-02-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

The development of my one-act play "Dig" continues. I have completed one round of revisions that have clearly improved the script. It's always a treat when people ask you to add rather than take away.

On Thursday, February 10 CurvingRoad director Ellie Joseph will put the new version through its paces at a workshop reading to see what further changes are needed. Bit by bit the play will reach its final form. Since I have never taken a class in dramatic writing, I am getting a valuable education in how theater is done.

In case you find yourself in or near London shortly, I should also note that CurvingRoad will have a fundraiser for "Dig" and "No More, Salvator" by Scottish playwright Michael Hart on Thursday, March 4 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the 1901 Arts Club, located at 7 Exton Street, London SE1 8UE. Directions, including Tube and bus route information, can be found here.

I don't anticipate being able to make the event myself, but I may prepare a statement or place a trans-Atlantic call during the event.

The reality is setting in.

Interview at Spanglish Baby

2010-01-15T14:31:00.000-08:00

The world of publishing and publicity has begun to stir from its holiday slumber, and I am in my own way involved

Roxana Soto, co-founder and co-editor of the blog Spanglish Baby, interviews me here and reviews The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo. I am delighted to be a small part of this vibrant and increasingly well-known site.

Two things might help persuade you to read the article. First, one copy of the bilingual edition will be given away to one commenter or other reader who expresses interest by 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time on January 17. Second, as promised long ago in the first post of this blog, I finally get around to explaining how a guy named Smith ends up writing about mariachis. I come by the topic honestly, in my own way.

New Poem on 14 by 14

2009-12-16T14:55:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to report that my sonnet "Botanical Garden" appears online in Issue 11 of 14 by 14, the "lean sonnet zine" that features 14 sonnets by 14 poets in each edition. You may never see goldfish the same way again after reading my short poem.

I am particularly pleased to have my work included in the same venue as a poem by Susan McLean, whose collection The Best Disguise was awarded the Richard Wilbur Prize and has recently been published by the University of Evansville Press.

Round-Up

2009-12-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

These posts usually mention only one topic at a time, but a lot of news has come in over the past few days.

This post therefore lists several items in a round-up, not to be confused with one of the brand names of the herbicide glyphosate, which looms large in controversies surrounding genetically modified organisms in agriculture.

This round-up should engender less controversy, but perhaps a certain amount of interest.
To wit:

1. Literary agent Robin Mizell interviewed me last Friday on her blog Treated & Released. She graciously gave me a considerable amount of valuable online real estate to discuss The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo as well as work that is very much not for children.

2. My poem "Dachshunds of Buenos Aires" appears in Issue 55 of legendary literary magazine Gargoyle. After many years of trying, I have managed to place a poem there. Still, I have to live the rest of my life knowing that I may never come up with a better title for a poem.

3. My poem "Lullaby for the Bereaved" appears in the Winter Issue of Able Muse. Come for my poem, and stay for work by many fine poets as well as a tribute to the late Turner Cassity.

4. I have begun discussing revisions of my one-act play "Dig" with members and affiliates of CurvingRoad in London as we begin the long journey toward a June engagement at a venue to be named nex month. I am a bit intimidated by the whole thing, but there is no choice but to press on and learn something.

5. I am even now starting preparations for next May's Book Expo America. The time for my signing has not yet been determined, but I have put in for a slot and will make the information known as soon as possible.

The last few days have also included rejections of both prose and poetry, including one of my two circulating book manuscripts, but those are much less enjoyable to discuss.

New Poem in Tilt-a-Whirl

2009-12-01T14:11:00.001-08:00

I am pleased to note that my new poem "Crepuscule" appears in Issue of 1 of Tilt-a-Whirl: A Poetry Sporadical of Repeating Forms, a venture by poet and editor Kate Bernadette Benedict.

My poem is a triolet, an eight-line form. Other forms in the issue include the ghazal, rondeau, and villanelle. The latter is perhaps best known to readers as the form of the Dylan Thomas poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," which was given a surprisingly tender reading by Rodney Dangerfield in the film Back to School.

Another popular culture note comes to mind. Had I known that paranormal romance (the publishing trade term for things such as vampire crushes) were going to be a big thing, I would have gone ahead and entitled the poem "Twilight" for reasons that are all too obvious these days.

Oh, well.

Dogs and Poetry

2009-11-16T14:57:00.000-08:00

Last week my wife Paula Van Lare and I had the pleasure and the privilege of volunteering for a couple of days at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah.

More specifically, we worked at Dogtown, as featured on the National Geographic program of the same name.

You may wonder what this has to do with my writing.

Fair enough.

While only a small portion of my writing has involved dogs, last week's experience made me want to share a couple of previously published dog poems. I have another tangentially canine poem coming out shortly (more on this soon), and I am trying to publish a couple of others.

For now I hope you enjoy these two.

Policy

Because Nubians are still enslaved
I walk my dogs twice a day.

Because a child conceived tonight will inherit addiction
I leave my dogs offerings
of fresh water, with ice cubes.
Because envelopes and marketplaces explode
I hug my dogs and even carry them
where no shrapnel flies.

Because a manatee is sliced
by motorboat blades
and the last wild tiger
has been born,
I keep my dogs' tags and shots
up to date.

Now that any fact can be known
in an instant,
the smallest love is news.

Things touch at a near or far remove:
jays pass raspberry seeds
over fresh fields,
armadillos, burrowed into freight,
widen their range.

Word of my program
will ride the jet stream,
and land like a petal,
or it will bounce, devoutly, off a satellite.

Aubade

Dog, and I believe that I can call you that
with a high degree of accuracy,
in a purely denotative sense, though,
unsullied by cultural associations,
please listen,
since I seldom ask that much of you
(the couch is yours no less than mine,
the pillows, past and present, more so):
You would, if you a possessed a consciousness
of cause and effect, self and other
and the mortality that swallows them,
be grateful to know nothing
beyond that which you know right now
because, for me,
it’s seven-thirty on a partly cloudy
Tuesday, forty-five degrees,
with a sixty-percent chance of rain
and the certainty
of a commute and a day’s work
in which I’ll be wagged by—appended to—
devices engineered by men
who get out even less than me.
Really, they exist,
though you might have gathered otherwise
from the long and many evenings that we share—
like tonight, when we’ll
resume this small symposium.
Until then, fellow traveler on the planet,
Don’t scratch that spot behind your ear—
It’s already bare.
A new rawhide bone is on your bed
and, as always, cane mio,
the kibble’s in the bowl.

London Calling

2009-10-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

This post is more than just an opportunity to invoke one of the best-known songs by The Clash.

I have a truly dramatic announcement.

To wit, my one-act play "Dig" will be getting its first fully mounted professional production in London, with a scheduled opening night some time in the spring. First published in Rockhurst Review in 1997, "Dig" will be produced thanks to the efforts of Curving Road, a nonprofit registered in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Much of their work involves launching the artistic careers of disadvantaged youth who might not have access to valuable training and connections. In case you wonder about the name, more information is available here.

In this instance, Curving Road placed a call for one-act play submissions from writers over the age of 40 who had never had a play professionally produced. After the inevitable period of waiting that follows any submission, I have learned that my play, along with "Nearly Man" by Scottish playwright Michael Hart, will make up the program.

The Curving Road web site summarizes my play as follows:

" 'Dig' explores through dark humour the power struggle between prey and victim, centering on the dialogue between an executioner and a victim who refuses to dig his own grave."

As you have no doubt already surmised, this is not for children.

Now a whole new sequence of events begins. I am willing to call it a new stage of my education.
I hope to take the lessons learned from this production to the plays I plan to write in the years ahead.

At the moment I have ideas for at least two full-length plays.

New Lists on Top Hat Tap Dance

2009-10-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

The list may represent America's unique contribution to humor, and many of us know it best from David Letterman's Top Ten List.

I've recently had a few lists of my own published on the site Top Hat Tap Dance, the creation of Austin, Texas writer and photographer Kristin Hillery, whose work has, like my own, appeared on Yankee Pot Roast.

My lists (or, as some of the kids call them these days, "listicles") appear on the following dates:

and September 14

(September 14 was a busy day).

I will soon put together another set of previously published humor links, including both lists and longer articles, but the links above can be considered an appetizer.

New Story in Pulp Pusher

2009-09-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

I continue not to publish much fiction, but earlier today my Midwestern noir story "Killing the Singer" was posted on Pulp Pusher, the awesome site of Scottish crime writer Tony Black.

Come for my story, and stay for work by and/or about noir folk (Tartan Noir and other) including Chad Eagleton, Christa Faust, Victor Gischler, Allan Guthrie, Sophie Littlefield, Anthony Neil Smith (no relation) and Andrew Vachss.

What--or who--would you sacrifice for Art?

New Story on Flash Fiction Offensive

2009-09-08T08:14:00.000-07:00

I still don't publish much fiction, but my neo-noir story "Neighborhood Watch" appears on the Flash Fiction Offensive site and is eligible for subsequent inclusion in not-for-the-faint-of-heart print publication Out of the Gutter Magazine.

I don't want to ruin the story by saying too much about it, but I follow distantly in the footsteps of one of the most famous works of Jonathan Swift.

If you are wondering what neo-noir is, I would describe it as a descendant of hard-boiled noir and pulp fiction of the twentieth century, but with generally more (okay, much more) profanity and less racism and sexism, and sometimes social commentary. Leading purveyors include Todd Robinson's Thuglit and Tony Black's Pulp Pusher. (Disclosure: My stories have appeared in both.)

Reading my story doesn't take much longer than getting a fist to the face, and it hurts a lot less. What's not to like?

Story in Bull: Fiction for Thinking Men

2009-09-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

I don't publish a lot of fiction, at least not yet, but sometimes it happens.

The most recent example is my story "Foolish Time" in the online journal Bull: Fiction for Thinking Men.

Editor Jarrett Haley does not offer a one-size-fits-all approach to who thinking men are, or to what men's fiction should be. He is nonetheless speaking to a clear divide between mainstream publishing, particularly in literary fiction, and much of the male population.

The conventional wisdom in publishing can be summarized as "men don't read" or "men don't buy books." In response to proposal that two friends and I once made for a book targeting men, a literary agency assistant's rejection including the observation that men instead spend their money on "beer, lottery tickets and sex." This comes as news to me and to most of the men I know.

A second problem with those statements is that mainstream publishing, in spite of its dire financial situation, offers relatively little for men to read. Most of us can't relate to the upper bourgeois dilemmas of men usually portrayed in a New Yorker story. We additionally go a long time between the appearances of writers such as Thom Jones or Marc Nesbitt with something to say about the experience of men who feel burdened, cornered or simply "had" by the difference between what they were told to expect and where they find themselves.

Publications like Bull and various independent publishers are trying to meet needs that the mainstream largely ignores.

Second Poem in The Wanderlust Review

2009-09-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

As noted in the previous post, my second poem has been published in The Wanderlust Review.

That poem, "Andante," a Valentine to travel in general, can be found here.

You will notice that the poem is an abecedary, where each line begans with and features a letter of the alphabet. In addition to playing with sounds, the abecedary is a way of taking inventory of what's going on inside one's head. I heard Denise Duhamel read an extended abecedary at the 2004 Conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) in Chicago and was eventually enticed to try one myself.

But I will let the poem speak for itself.

Yellowknife beckons.

New Poem in The Wanderlust Review

2009-08-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

I once heard of a saying in Arabic that states humans are driven by four great motives. I can't remember what the other three were, but the fourth was the urge to travel.

New online journal The Wanderlust Review, based on that premise, takes travel writing beyond listings of accommodations and places to see and attempts to capture the experience of travel as well as the logistics.

I am therefore greatly pleased that the editors have recently chosen to include my poem "London Postcard" on the site. I also expect to have another poem in The Wanderlust Review before long.

Interview at Los Bloguitos

2009-08-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

Today I am interviewed here at Los Bloguitos (literally, "the little blogs" or, if you will, "bloglets"), a daily updated Spanish-language blog for children, parents and teachers.

Interviewer Leticia Teresa Pontoni, whose poetry also appears on the site, contacted me by email and asked me a few questions about my book The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo, as well as about how writing feels and how someone named Smith comes to write about mariachis. I even get to offer a little encouragement to the youngsters coming up in the world.

An approximate English translation is available here.

New Poems in Light Quarterly

2009-08-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

As noted in the January 24 post, I believe the world needs more light verse, and sometimes I attempt to provide a bit of my own.

With this in mind, I am pleased to announce that some of my work appears in the current double issue of Light Quarterly, the leading journal of light verse in English. Editor John Mella and colleagues have kindly featured my poem "The Jellyfish" at the bottom of the page announcing the current issue.

The issue also includes two of an ongoing series of critterhews, my own variation on the clerihew that uses the name of an animal instead of a person. I have compiled enough for an abecedary, including the letter X, and hope to have them eventually published as a book or book section.

One example, previously published in The Other Herald, is the following:

Garfish
May not look like but are fish.
Shaped like needles and spears,
They devour their piscine peers.

That is also based on fact.

Two Poems in Anon

2009-08-10T07:35:00.000-07:00

Delayed by other doings this summer, only now am I mentioning that two of my poems, "Fragment from Zeno" and "Heart," appear in Issue 6 of Anon, a Scottish poetry journal that draws its name from an anonymous submissions process designed to reduce the amount of logrolling, backscratching and all-around cronyism in the poetry world. Poets' identities are known to the editors only after their work is accepted.

Launched July 9 at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh, Issue 6 will also be featured in an August 16 event at Edinburgh's West Port Book Festival, which will overlap with several days of the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I won't be attending, alas, but I will be anxiously awaiting word of how the festivities go.

A sample of the issue, including "Heart," is available here, and an audio file of "Fragment from Zeno" read by Ishbel McFarlane can be found here.

RIF and FESTIBA Footage

2009-07-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

As noted in the April 3 post, Reading is Fundamental (RIF) gave away some 1,000 copies of The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo at FESTIBA 2009, held at the University of Texas-Pan American in McAllen.

I was unable to attend, but I have recently found a link here to a video clip of about 28 seconds showing a variety of activities, including the distribution of the book to children and parents.

I had been told this was a large event, but I had no idea how large until seeing the footage.

Supergracias to FESTIBA and RIF for including my work in this important event.

Guest-Blogging at Madam Mayo

2009-07-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

Washington, DC and Mexico City-based writer C.M. Mayo has graciously given me space to post a list of mariachi related-facts here on her blog Madam Mayo.

Go there to read about mariachi history, clothing, festivals and food culture, the background of my children's picture The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo.

Stay to look at pictures of adorable pug Picadou and learn about C.M. Mayo's very well-reviewed new novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, which was advertised in yesterday's New York Times Book Review. You will also learn how her blog got its name.

New Page on Author and Illustrator Source

2009-07-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

We are still in the thick of summer, but educators may already be trying to schedule events for the coming academic year.

With that in mind, I would call to your attention Author and Illustrator Source, an extensive listing of (you guessed it) published authors and illustrators who make school visits and presentations, with contact information, rates and types of presentations offered. Presenters are listed both alphabetically and geographically, with biographical paragraphs and information on their titles. Areas represented include picture books, chapter books, non-fiction, poetry and virtually every type of children's and young adult literature you can imagine.

My page, which you can find here, lists my rates and possible presentation formats. I am in the unusual position of being able to offer programs for both children and adults, and I hope to do so at book festivals as well as school visits in the months ahead.

New Anthology Publication: Against Agamemnon

2009-06-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's postal mail brought, along with returned poems and nondescript items, my contributor's copy of Against Agamemnon: War Poetry 2009, edited by James Adams and published by Waterwood Press.

My poem "Questions on Recruitment" appears alongside work by poets from the United States and other countries including the following:

Alex Cigale

Antler

Cyrus Cassells

Jean Hollander

Fady Joudah

Nicholas Samaras

The latter two, Mr. Joudah and Mr. Samaras, are Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize winners.

The work in the volume approaches present and past wars from a wide range of perspectives, including those of combatant, victim and bystander, but any summary fails to due justice to the complexity and force of the poems included.

Should you have encounter any difficulties in finding a copy, the press can be contacted at waterwoodpress_at_gmail.com (substitute @ for word in address).

I am grateful to Mr. Adams for including me in this solemn and necessary collection.

New Page on Book That Poet!

2009-06-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

As part of my ongoing attempt to place my name and work in every corner of the Internet, I have recently set up a page here on the site Book That Poet!

The creation of poet and versetrepeneur Shoshauna Shy, BTP is a handy listing of poets with sample poems, biographies, and the kinds of readings and other events they are willing to provide. I am the only Washington, DC poet listed so far, but that could change.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with fellow BTP poet Sarah Busse and fellow BTP poet and Wisconsin Poet Laureate Marilyn L. Taylor at the West Chester University Poetry Conference.

Two Poems on Shape of a Box and YouTube

2009-06-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

Since a week or more can go without posts here, it's a little odd to post twice in one day, but things are funny. As it turns out, my reading of two poems "Spiral" and "Origin" went live today as Issue 35 of Shape of a Box, the video magazine of Folded Word Press. You can find the video on the Folded Word Press blog here. Thanks to editor Jessie Carty for selecting my work and for setting things up so that I could do the reading in one take.

You can also find the video on YouTube here.

The poems were recorded in Chicago during the 2009 Conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).

More importantly, I hope you enjoy them.

Photographs from Book Expo America

2009-06-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

The pictures from Book Expo America have arrived, and they can be found here. You can view the pictures as thumbnails or as a slide show. In either case, you can see a few copies of The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo on display, and you can see evidence that I traveled with my sombrero, as everyone should.

At Booth 718 in the Chilldren's Pavilion I had the pleasure of meeting fellow Raven Tree Press authors Tim Hoppey and Janice Levy, shown at their signings, and publisher Dawn Jeffers.

Promoting a book is much different than writing a book, but both offer their own pleasures.

Second Award for Mariachi

2009-06-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

Book Expo America has brought more news than I initially realized.

On Thursday, May 28, the 11th Annual International Latino Book Awards, sponsored by Latino Literacy Now, were announced at the Javits Convention Center. As it turns out, the Spanish-language version of my children's book, El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo, was awarded second place in the Spanish Children's Picture Book category.

A list of the first-place, second-place and honorable mention books in all categories can be found here.

Since I am the writer and not the illustrator, this is really our book. Without Dani Jones and her vibrant, thoroughly researched illustrations, there would only be words in search of pictures.

The book's first award, announced in January, was being included among Críticas Magazine's Best Children's Books of 2008, as discussed here.

To state the obvious, I am very much enjoying this.

Book Expo America Report

2009-06-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

Booth 718 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center was very, very good to Gustavo and to me on the afternoon of Saturday, May 30. Before long there will be pictures to prove this.

From 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. I was scheduled to sign copies of the English-language version of The Best Mariachi in the World and help to display the Spanish-language and bilingual versions of the book.

There was only one problem--if you want to call it that. At 2 p.m. the time slot of the next author, Tim Hoppey, was beginning, and there were still patient people lined up. What could I do?

With help from Tim and from Raven Tree Press personnel I was able to move to another table and continue signing books until about 2:15, when we ran out, and I had to apologize to a very understanding woman who was left empty-handed.

This was intense, and I was starting to get hoarse from all the meeting and greeting, but it staved off my fear of sitting around and looking needy.

The fun didn't stop there. After walking my sombrero around the exhibition floor, I later joined, among others, publisher Dawn Jeffers, illustrator Pam Barcita, and authors Tim Hoppey and Janice Levy for dinner. There we discussed the day and how to keep its momentum going.

One topic arose that I haven't mentioned in this space until now, and this is online reviewing. For a small press, online reviews and word of mouth help to level the playing field with big publishers and blockbuster titles.

With that in mind, I invite those of you who haven't already done so to write reviews of one or more versions of The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo at the following online sellers:

I will add other online sellers as I find them, and I very much appreciate any buzz you can help to create.

¡Vamos a Book Expo America!

2009-05-29T11:18:00.001-07:00

I have packed my sombrero and my exhibitor badge, and tonight I take the train from DC to New York for Book Expo America (BEA), one of the world's largest book fairs.

On Saturday, May 30, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. I will be signing The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo at Booth 718, the home away from home of my publisher, Raven Tree Press.

I have attended BEA once before out of curiosity, but this is my first time attending as a participant. I will be a very small fish in a very big pond (perhaps more like a minnow in the ocean), but it is the pond where I want to swim.

Three New Poems in The Helix

2009-05-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

Before I put on my sombrero and go up to New York for Book Expo America next week, I want to take this opportunity to announce that three new poems of mine, "Country Data," "Coyotes," and "Metaphors of a Mother's Death" appear in the brand-new Spring 2009 edition of the print magazine The Helix.

And I am only one of several dozen established, emerging and student writers in the issue. Other contributors include Steve D. Dalachinksy, Ruth Lepson and Joanne Lowery. In addition to poetry, there is fiction, non-fiction and even a short play.

I can also guarantee that, unless you are nothing less than phenomenal at multitasking, reading my poems and the other work will at least temporarily prevent you from falling in with unsavory characters or seeking out low amusements such as games of chance and the snares and temptations of opium dens.

Seis de Mayo (with pictures)

2009-05-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

The pictures come from last night's reading of The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo at the Barnes and Noble at the corner of Broadway and 82nd Street in Manhattan, co-sponsored by P.S. 87. My reading of each page in English was followed by a reading of the same page in Spanish by a group of four P.S. 87 students who took turns.

Besides reading and signing some books, I got to meet some delightful parents and children, as well as the dear parents of my friend and colleague the London-based poet and novelist Sue Guiney.

The mariachis pictured are members of New York's Mariachi Bustamante, established in 1970 and the first mariachi ensemble in the Northeast. The group appeared in Woody Allen's Scenes from a Mall (1991), and their work was used in the soundtrack of the 2006 documentary Maquilapolis. Muscial director Don Agustín Bustamante also appeared as a musician in the 2007 film Enchanted. To state the obvious, or understate it, they are really, really good.

I want to thank Lou and Ann of the 82nd and Broadway Barnes and Noble for making all this possible and for making me feel very welcome for the event.

First We Take Manhattan

2009-05-04T15:17:00.000-07:00

To begin with a disclaimer, I should state my belief that nobody truly takes Manhattan, not even the Muppets.

Still, I don't get many chances to use Leonard Cohen lyrics in relation to my own life, and this is one of those rare times.

In short, on Wednesday May 6, at 6 p.m. I will reading and signing The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo at the Manhattan Barnes and Noble on the corner of 82nd Street and Broadway. The event listing is here, as well as in several New York-area event calendars.

And I am not the only entertainment. There will be a mariachi band to continue Cinco de Mayo into Seis de Mayo, and at least one school group of niños will be in attendance.

As you may suspect, the forecast calls for sombreros.

Cinco de Mayo on Tres de Mayo

2009-04-30T15:59:00.001-07:00

When life gives you Cinco de Mayo on a Tuesday, you celebrate on the preceding Sunday.

With this in mind, I am delighted to say that I will get to be a small part of the upcoming
17th annual National Cinco de Mayo Festival on May 3 from noon to 6 p.m. on the National Mall near the Washington Monument. (You can't miss it, seriously.)

At 1 p.m. and 2 p.m I will be reading The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo at the Children's Pavilion and Crafts ARea and giving away a few copies after each time slot. There will also be performances by the Maru Montero Dance Company, the host of the events, as well as other dancers and musicians and additional activities. Food from Mexico and other Latin American countries will be on sale (cash only), and I think it's fair to say that there will be sombreros. What's not to like?

This is a rain-or-shine event, so the weather will not disrupt our plans.

Poetic Voices Without Borders 2: The Reading

2009-04-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

At some point, and without my having been consulted, April was chosen as National Poetry Month.

Thus every April for about the past 15 years or so I have been sitting around thinking "Okay, another National Poetry Month is here. Where's my cut?"

This year I can't complain, as I actually get to participate in an event tied in with National Poetry Month. The announcement goes like this:

On Thursday, April 23, 2009, at 7 PM the Arlington Arts Center will host a special reading in celebration of Poetry Month with the following poets: Luis Alberto Ambroggio, Naomi Ayala, Mel Belin, Jody Bolz, Ye Chun, Teri Ellen Cross, Patricia Garfinkel, Peter Klappert, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, C. M. Mayo, Judith McCombs, E. Ethelbert Miller, Miles David Moore, Richard Peabody, Kim Roberts, Blake Robinson, M.A. Schaffner, Gregg Shapiro, J. D. Smith, and Robert L. Giron who will read from the anthology and their current work.

The voices found within these pages are passionate and enlightening while echoing a desire in their own way to transform, to change, to transcend borders, be they personal, cultural or national, in a poetic manner as if to say that within literature there isn’t a border for the human spirit, for it is that energy that keeps us going.

In Celebration of Poetry Month

and the Release of Poetic Voices Without Borders 2
Thursday April 23, 2009 at 7 PM
The Arlington Arts Center
3550 Wilson Blvd. (across from the Virginia Square Metro stop)
Arlington, VA ~ 703.248.6800

In addition to Poetic Voices Without Borders 2, I plan to bring for sale a few copies of my second collection, Settling for Beauty, as well as display copies of The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo.

With a lineup like this, there should be something for everyone.

A Message from Our Friends at RIF

2009-04-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

Since the people of Reading Is Fundamental were kind enough to give away so many copies of The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo recently, the very least I can do for them is to spread the word about the 2009 Read with Kids Challenge, which began on April 1 and continues until June 30. Participants in the challenge are encouraged to log the amount of time they read with children, and the goal for participants nationwide is to record a total of 5 million minutes of reading, with chances to win a variety of prizes.

The link above and the illustration below will explain this better than I can.

People can even form reading teams in support of their favorite authors. Now there's an idea.

Anarchy in the Pre-K! (Now with Pictures)

2009-04-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Visit accomplished! I have proof, thanks to Chris Clardy of the Brooksfield School.

And on the morning of April 1 there were indeed sombreros, one full-sized and another, too small even for the kids, that could maybe fit a very patient guinea pig or rabbit.

There were two sessions. The first was with what I was told were 57 or 58 three to five-year-olds. They are very small and move fast, so I wasn't able to count them myself. The second was with about two dozen six to eight-year-olds, who aren't as small but move even faster.

I have two appearances scheduled in May, which I'll discuss soon, and tomorrow I plan to post a message from our friends at Reading Is Fundamental.

Until then, I welcome your guesses as to what I am holding in my right hand in the last picture.

FESTIBA and The Best Mariachi in the World on Rasco from RIF Blog

2009-04-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

It's a blog world, after all. It's a blog world after all . . .

You get the idea.

Rasco from RIF, the blog of Reading Is Fundamental CEO Carol H. Rasco, has a post right here about Community Day in South Texas on March 28 at FESTIBA, held at the University of Texas-Pan American in McAllen. The video slide show here provides an overall sense of what went on, including pictures of children looking over their own copies of The Best Mariachi in the World.

I knew that RIF was giving away a fair number of copies, but I had no idea how many. As it turned out, RIF gave away more than 1,000 copies of The Best Mariachi in the World to kids and their families.

I hope that a great many niños y niñas are enjoying the book, perhaps even as I am writing these words.

Anarchy in the Pre-K!

2009-04-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

The headline's a bit of an exaggeration, but some of you will enjoy the reference.

More literally, yesterday was my first school visit in support of The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo. Brooksfield School in McLean, Virginia, a Montessori school for pre-K to third grade students, hosted me for most of the morning.

We read and shared the bilingual and Spanish-language versions of the book, and students heard several tracks from a two-disc collection by Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán that my wife Paula Van Lare bought for me in time for the appearance. The upper-level students danced for a few minutes, and both groups had some fun with show and tell and Spanish vocabulary.

Pictures and further details are forthcoming and, to paraphrase the title of a recent film, there will be sombreros.

The Next-to-Last Word

2009-03-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you don't need to have the last word.

Having the next-to-last word can be quite fine in its own right.

For example, my poem "Sweater" is the penultimate entry in the anthology Eating Her Wedding Dress: A Collection of Clothing Poems, edited by Ellen Foos, Vasiliki Katsarou and Ruth O'Toole, and published by Ragged Sky Press. That strange and wonderful book title is drawn from the title of a strange and wonderful poem by Eileen Malone on page 65.

Besides her poem and mine (which previously appeared in my collection Settling for Beauty), there is work by very well-known poets including Kim Addonizio, Jorie Graham, Paul Muldoon and Charles Simic. Clothing from head to toe is covered, and the moods range from the solemn to the hilarious. Among the latter is Janis Butler Holm's "If Paris Hilton Wrote Poetry," which must be read to be believed.

Hola, Bulgaria!

2009-03-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

Gustavo has reached yet another country: Bulgaria.

Last night I learned that The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo is available here through the retail site Store.bg.

I would say more about this, but most of the page on that site is in Bulgarian, one of many languages I do not know.

If anyone reading this knows Bulgarian, I would be grateful for an approximate translation.

A Man Can Dream

2009-03-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

What do writers want?

There are at least as many answers as there are writers, since we change our minds like everyone else and we may want a lot of things at the same time.

My wish list has quite a few items, and if I can swing even half of them I will be doing very well indeed.

Here, in no particular order, are some of the things I daydream about:

1. Selling film and/or television rights to The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mariachi del Mundo in order to have a financially secure future and one in which I can devote myself fully to writing and related work such as book tours. Electronic media would also provide advertising for that book and others. The filmmaker who first comes to mind is Robert Rodriguez, given his work in El Mariachi, Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Spy Kids. Still, reasonable offers from any party will be considered.

2. Writing song lyrics. I don't play an instrument or read music, but I've spent a lot of time listening to Top-40 music and, as I've grown older, American standards. Artists I particularly admire and would like to work with include Tom Waits and Nellie McKay.

3. Following up on Item 2, I would like to write a libretto and/or the lyrics to a stage musical, especially if the latter is a comedy. That would be an entirely new challenge.

4. Another fun project (and I know I have unusual ideas of fun) would be writing the essay for a photography book or an art exhibition catalog.

5. Though I don't draw, I would like to provide captions to cartoonists. I have a running list of ideas.

6. With a large enough bloc of time, I would like to write a book on the use of metaphors for nature and their implications, sorting out which metaphors are more or less useful. I already have some ideas and the beginnings of an outline.

7. I further wish to write essays, if not an entire book, on a) the human relationship with the animal world and b) the relationship between brand names and the arts.

There will be more. In the meantime, a man can dream.

Backstage with Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan

2009-03-06T13:04:00.001-08:00

Shortly before the concert that closed the San Antonio Mariachi Festival in December 2008, members of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, the original Best Mariachi in the World, graciously allowed my wife Paula Van Lare and myself to get backstage for a couple of quick pictures.

I knew getting the photographs was a big deal at the time, but only later have I been able to appreciate how big of a deal it was. My thanks go out to Mariachi Vargas, their crew and Festival personnel for making the moment possible.

Reading (about Mariachis) is Fundamental

2009-03-03T12:08:00.000-08:00

You never know what a simple online search might bring.

Yesterday I was looking for references to The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo, and I found this press release for the Festival of International Books and Arts (FESTIBA) to be held March 22-28 at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, a city of the Rio Grande Valley.

The press release states:

"FESTIBA is a weeklong celebration of the arts and humanities and promotes literacy and cultural awareness by providing students and the Rio Grande Valley community interactive, hands-on opportunities to experience books, theatre, storytelling, music, art, dance, and performance competitions."

Those are all good things, but I could not yet see how they related to Gustavo and his canciones.

I had to read down to the middle of the piece to find the connection, which goes something like this:

"During FESTIBA, more than 300,000 books will be distributed in more than 30 Valley schools through its partnership established last year with Reading is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), the nation’s oldest and largest children’s and family nonprofit literacy organization. In 2008, RIF distributed 16 million books at 18,000 sites throughout the United States.

Stephen Leach, director of Government Relations and Community Outreach for RIF, said during FESTIBA Community Day March 28, visitors to the RIF tent will be able to meet Maya and Miguel from the animated PBS children’s show thanks to Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company. Children will also receive from RIF a free copy of the book 'The Best Mariachi in the World,' by J.D. Smith."

I am honored to have my book selected for distribution by such an outstanding organization, and I hope that my work will be of some small help in their mission.

More San Antonio Festival Pictures

2009-02-24T12:47:00.000-08:00

There are many kinds of mariachis in this world. Some are very young, some quite elderly, and most somewhere in the middle. Some keep their sombreros on while performing, while others take them off with a flourish before beginning their first number. Besides Mexico and the United States, mariachi ensembles can also be found throughout the Americas and in places as far away as Serbia and Japan.

While we often think of mariachis as being only men, women have been increasingly involved in all aspects of mariachi over the last several decades. Some bands feature female vocalists, and there are some all-woman bands such as Mariachi Rosas Divinas of Dallas.

One of the talented young performers I met at the December 2008 San Antonio Mariachi Festival was the singer Victoria Acosta, who was kind enough to appear in the pictures above. She also appears in other pictures I will be posting from the event. In addition to her own performances, she worked with children onstage during a mariachi trivia quiz, for which the prizes were copies of The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo.

Mariachi Fan Mail

2009-02-23T08:12:00.001-08:00

Now and then I am fortunate enough to have a Velveteen Rabbit moment that shows me I am in now real in one or another area--perhaps not outstanding, but real.

One such moment occurred recently when I received my very first fan mail from young readers in Riverside, California, who wrote letters to me in class on February 3. I would like to thank their teacher Sheila McMahon for sharing the letters with me.

It would take a lot of space to include all of the letters, but I do want to list all of my correspondents' first names:

Angelo

Carmen

Carlos

Christian

César

David

Devin

Frankie

Gabriel

Haylee

Jennifer

Jovanni

Kevin

Liliana

Lupita

Ryan

Simon

Most of them are from seven to nine years of age.

Haylee writes, "I am impressed by the book you wrote." I am impressed that people take the time and interest to read.

Liliana mentions that she is seven years and asks me how old I am. I am much, much older: 45 years old, to be exact.

Among the boys, David tells me that he knows some Spanish words, and Angelo hopes that I will write another story. I'll see what I can do about that.

Humor Issue of Poemeleon Now Online

2009-02-20T12:27:00.001-08:00

The eagle--or some other, perhaps less majestic bird like a curlew or wood duck--has landed.

The humor issue of Poemeleon (www.poemeleon.org) is now online. In addition to my dog leave-taking poem Aubade, which originally appeared in The Bark, the issue features work by poets including Sherman Alexie, Julie Kane, Martha Silano, Marilyn L. Taylor and Charles Harper Webb.

My thanks to editor Cati Porter for including me in such fine company.

A Young Reader in San Antonio

2009-02-19T14:11:00.001-08:00

I'm far behind on posting my San Antonio Mariachi Festival pictures, but I will now start to catch up.

The pictures above and below the text were taken with young reader and cantante Luis L., who sings as "El Gallito" (the Little Rooster). Gallito's parents graciously allowed me to have my picture taken with him, as he reminds me a bit of Gustavo.

I saw him rock the stage a couple of times in San Antonio, where he quickly applied what he learned in a master class.

More San Antonio pictures are forthcoming, along with news on both Mariachi and non-Mariachi fronts.

Settling for Beauty

2009-02-10T11:29:00.000-08:00

I still have a lot to learn about publishing, but I can pass along one piece of hard-earned wisdom: if you have a choice, don't plan your wedding and your book launch for the same season. The wedding (appropriately enough) gets priority and the book launch suffers. I found this out in 2005 when my second collection, Settling for Beauty, was published in September and I got married in October.

With this in mind, I am back to promoting the book, beginning on Thursday, February 12 at the annual conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs in Chicago. From 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. I will be signing at Table 750 of the Book Fair floor, which belongs to publisher WordTech Communications. On Friday, February 13, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. I will be signing Settling for Beauty and displaying The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo at Table 792, hosted by The Word Works, a DC-based press for which I have done some volunteering in the past.

While several poems in Settling for Beauty can be found online, I don't expect busy people to go looking for them right away. I would thus like to close this post with a poem from the book with the title "For Bad Wine":

For Bad Wine

Once in a field, in a wide rising stretch of paintbrush
& purple vetch, we stuck down

a tent, like punctuation, and drank through the evening
our bottle of bad wine.

Kate Northrop

Because the stores where finer wines are sold
are closed, or too far away to drive
on a rainy night, and because,
truth be told, we’re already a bit tipsy,
we’ll settle for what we can find in town.

Because the bottles of dusty neck and shoulders
that suggest long ageing, and a high price,
lie on their sides on a rack
too low to reach without stooping,
we’ll take one of the bright bottles
that stand close by.

Since so many of the labels are written
in strange languages that bring no comfort,
we narrow down to the plain-spoken domestics.

As, even in mid-life, we’re intimidated
by the corkscrew, the very cork,
the intricate and solemn techniques
and auguries of its removal,
we look among the simple screw tops,
such as we turned to open soda and juice
before our first high school drink.

Because we may as well toast our younger selves
who didn’t know Boone’s Farm from Bordeaux,
who knew we would get rich while doing good,
but in the meantime had to scrimp,
we will take the cheapest brand.

Because we now know better,
but have to save for retirement,
we will take the large and cost-effective jug.

Because we have our reasons
and don’t want to tell them again,
we’ll refill our glasses
and drain every drop.

New Essay Online: "Branding the Arts"

2009-02-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

My essay "Branding the Arts" appears here.

The essay takes a tour of the use of brand names in several genres of both high and popular culture and looks at the further implications of brand names for artistic representation and daily life in general.

I hope to expand on these ideas over time, but this piece lays out some of the questions I hope to pursue.

Work in Poetic Voices Without Borders 2

2009-02-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

Recently I received my contributors' copies of Poetic Voices Without Borders 2, which includes my poems "Hero, Posthumous" (a ghazal, if you keep track of such things) and "Introduction to Economics," a free-verse poem.

The collection, assembled by Gival Press editor Robert L. Giron, includes sections of work in Spanish and French as well as in English, and work by some very well-known poets, several of whom are listed below:

Antler

Louis E. Bourgeois

Alfred Corn

Rita Dove

Denise Duhamel

Dana Gioia

Joy Harjo

Colette Inez

Philip Levine

Naomi Shihab Nye

Alicia Suskin Ostriker

Katherine Soniat

I am pleased to be in such fast poetic company, and you can purchase this book through online sellers as well as directly from the publisher.

Good and good for you.

Letter in January 25 New York Times Book Review

2009-01-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a long shot pays off.

When I wrote a letter to the Times Book Review a couple of weeks ago, I expected to have a few paragraphs to share with friends and possibly expand into an essay at some later point, as well as the satisfaction of venting a little bit.

My expectations were dashed when I received a message last week informing me that my letter would in fact be printed, and it appears here.

If the link presents any problems, you can see the text of the letter following this post.

I may be punching above my weight, and making more enemies than friends in the process, but they can only hang me once, whoever "they" may be.

***

To the Editor:

Ginia Bellafante’s welcome appreciation of Phyllis McGinley (“Suburban Rapture,” Dec. 28) errs only in referring to “the disappearance of light verse” in contemporary poetry. Established poets like X. J. Kennedy and R. S. Gwynn, not to mention Richard Wilbur, have written and published light verse throughout their careers, and Light, the quarterly edited by John Mella, consistently provides a forum for the best practitioners of light verse in English.

Light verse has, however, become much harder to find. With rare exceptions, The New Yorker and other general interest magazines have abandoned light verse, as have the larger publishing houses. This development is particularly baffling given that light verse is consistently well received at readings and appreciated by audiences who are not themselves poets.

This disconnect between poets working in light verse and the reading public represents an accident of American publishing history rather than an artistic or commercial necessity. The British poet Wendy Cope’s collections are published in first editions of some 50,000 copies, a figure nearly unheard of among “serious” American poets who are not otherwise celebrities. The fact that Dorothy Parker’s work has never gone out of print suggests the existence in this country of a similar and largely untapped audience. Addressing the unmet need for the wit and insight uniquely available in light verse would assist publishers in strengthening anemic balance sheets and aid readers in enduring the present dark times. If they are not careful, publishers might even find themselves expanding the audience for poetry in general.

J. D. Smith
Washington

Mariachi Named One of Best Children's Books of 2008

2009-01-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

Gustavo and friends are getting noticed.

A January 21 story here reports that The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo has been named one of the Best Children's Fiction Books of 2008 by Críticas, which had previously given Mariachi a starred review.

The Críticas article is found here.

As a first-time children's author who has benefited greatly from the assistance of Raven Tree Press publisher Dawn Jeffers, illustrator Dani Jones and translator Eida de la Vega, I am delighted at this turn of events. My gratitude and amazement reach all the way to the Sombrero Galaxy.

When are Bad Things a Good Thing?

2009-01-15T09:21:00.001-08:00

The answer to that question is when Chris Pimental's "pulpazine" Bad Things debuts, as it does here, and whenever a subsequent hard-boiled, neo-noirish, rough and tumble comes out.

And yes, I do have a poem in there, based on a real experience in Chicago.

I've been away from the neo-noir side of my writing lately, but I am hoping to get back on the crime train as this year develops.

Stay tuned.

Free Reading from New Zealand

2009-01-14T11:00:00.000-08:00

In case you are looking for a little free reading, I would direct your attention to my recently published poem "The Golem's Soul," published online here and originally printed in Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue, an interdisciplinary publication from Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Writing about legends runs the risk of merely repeating an interesting story, but I'd like to think I have done something a little bit different. Time will tell.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Golem's+Soul.-a0191350993

Illuminations: Expressions of the Personal Spiritual Experience

2008-12-22T14:08:00.000-08:00

In 2006 I had the privilege of seeing two pieces of mine selected for the anthology
Illuminations: Expressions of the Personal Spiritual Experience, edited by Mark L. Tompkins and Jennifer McMahon and published by Celestial Arts, an imprint of Ten Speed Press. Contributors much better-known than myself include Julia Cameron, Helene Cardona, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the experiences covered encompass finding, exploring, practicing and leaving a range of faiths.

Intended to raise both awareness and funds for projects involving interfaith dialogue and peacebuilding, this book has unfortunately not yet reached the audience it deserves and has not yet covered its expenses. Having received only one-time payment for my work in 2006, I will earn no proceeds from future sales of Illuminations and can now promote the book on its merits. As most days' news reminds us--whether from Iraq, India and Pakistan, or the United States--we can use more understanding, or at least tolerance, among people of different faiths as well as with those who adhere to none.

The editors have noted "Illuminations is available from any of the major online book retailers, and is available at a discount in quantities of 10 or more from the publisher. For discount information a special email has been set up: mark04388-interfaith@yahoo.com."

They further state "Organizations can benefit from using Illuminations in a number of ways:
Illuminations can be used in their education programs; special discounts are available for this purpose. Illuminations can be used for fundraising by offering it as a gift book to their network. Groups can earn $9.00 to $10.00 per book sold, depending on quantity and terms. Illuminations can be used for gifts to their members or as an incentive for joining or renewing."

The web site (www.illuminationsbook.com, if links are causing a problem) includes sample work as well as reviews. Even if you can't get a copy in time for the holiday(s) you celebrate, the book will remain timely.

Mariachi Roundup

2008-12-12T13:55:00.001-08:00

After his whirlwind trip to San Antonio, where he was unharmed by either unseasonably cold weather or the chupacabra, Gustavo kept his sombrero on and managed a successful week.

Last night I learned that the Tucson Citizen (free, registration required) has listed The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo as the first pick in a story entitled "Bilingual Books for Children Just in Time for the Holiday Season."

Two other positive reviews have appeared on specialized sites, one on on MyShelf.com and another on the modestly named yet very well-written site Mary's Blog. In addition, M. Tretiakova has written a very positive customer review on the Amazon.com page of the bilingual edition.

As if that weren't enough, I have learned that the newest country for online sales is Colombia, at Megastoregroup.com.

One theme emerging from the reviews is that boys are particularly taking to this book. For a variety of reasons it can be hard to get boys interested in books, so I am glad to help.

A couple of other non-Mariachi items should be coming up in the days ahead, including one that I am not yet at liberty to discuss . . .

New Poems Online at Ducts.org

2008-12-08T08:17:00.000-08:00

I am briefly breaking a streak of Mariachi-related news to announce that two of my poems, "General Apology" and "Detox," appear in Issue 22 of Ducts, which has been publishing for 10 calendar years. In web or dog years, that is something like a century. Poetry editor Amy Lemmon, a fine poet herself, has also selected work by poets include Denise Duhamel, Moira Egan, Dimitris Lyacos and Carly Sachs.

Live from San Antonio, Parte Dos!

2008-12-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

Today's reading at Borders at the Quarry in San Antonio went very well, thanks to booksellers Joanna and Angel and a wonderful audience of both adults and children.

I also had the opportunity to speak to adults and children at the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium.

Pictures from both events will appear in this very blog, and we'll see what comes of being in the audience for tonight's performance by Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan.

Live from San Antonio!

2008-12-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

I am writing this dispatch from the business center of the historic St. Anthony Hotel in San Antonio.

At the San Antonio Civic Center this morning I had the opportunity to speak to several hundred students ranging in age from early grade school to college level about the value of higher education and about The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo. I also gave away a hardcover of each version (bilingual, Spanish and English) as prizes for answering mariachi trivia questions.

The rest of today will include a bit of tourism and watching student competitions this evening, not to mention taking advantage of the local cuisine.

On Saturday, December 6 I will spend the morning getting reading for my reading at Borders at the Quarry.

Two More Mariachi Countries

2008-12-03T09:50:00.001-08:00

As I get ready for tonight's debut reading (discussed in the post below) and my reading at the San Antonio Mariachi Festival, I have two more countries where online sellers are offering The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo.

Readers in Estonia can purchase copies through Krisostomus, and readers in Hungary can order at Prospero in Budapest.

Tonight should be fun, and pictures may follow, possibly involving sombreros and serapes.

Washington, DC and World Debut Reading of The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo

2008-12-01T08:27:00.000-08:00

It is going to be an exciting and exhausting week.

On Wednesday, December 3, at 7 p.m., I will be giving my first-ever reading of The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo, along with a talk and a reading of family-friendly selections of my poetry at St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, Sixth Street and Maine Avenue, Southwest, near the Waterfront/Southeastern University Metro stop on the Green Line. More detailed directions are available here. Admission is free/gratis, but donations to the church will be accepted.

Following the reading I will be signing both Mariachi and my second collection of poems, Settling for Beauty. Only a limited number of copies of Mariachi will be available for sale on-site, so please feel free to bring a copy of any version for signing.

The event is noted in the Washington Post and in the December issue of Capitol-area community publication Hill Rag.

The day after this debut reading or, to take the Spanish phrase, el gran estreno, I will be flying out for my reading at the San Antonio Mariachi Festival.

More to come.

Latest Mariachi Review

2008-11-26T09:32:00.000-08:00

Some reviewers have unique rating systems.

Friend and blogger Judy Turner Williamson, wife of my friend the novelist and critic Eric Miles Williamson, reports the latest assessment from her two-year-old son:

Turner wanted his little sombrero down off the rack. He put it on his head, then ran around saying " 'Achi in the WORLD!" It took me a minute to realize he was pretending to be little Gustavo. Just now he climbed on my lap and saw the picture of your book, said "Achi Achi Achi in the world" and kissed the picture.

You have one little fan in South Texas!

Moments like that are why we write for children.

Belgium!

2008-11-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo is now available in Belgium through Flemish-language bookselling site www.Azur.be.

Thank you, Belgium.

When It Rains, It Pours

2008-11-20T07:49:00.001-08:00

Since being interviewed is not a normal part of my life, having one interview online is improbable enough, but having a second interview in less than a week is stranger still. But true.

If you would like to see some of my views on poetry, you may wish to check out the online wing of If Poetry Journal.

Thanks for taking a look.

Another Mariachi Country

2008-11-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

The list of countries where online sellers are offering The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo has grown by one.

An online search earlier this week revealed that Gustavo can now be found in Singapore at OpenTrolley Bookstore.

I had never thought of Singapore as a hotbed of mariachi interest, but then again I've never been to Singapore.

It's a surprising world out there.

Tour de Blog

2008-11-14T08:11:00.000-08:00

This week I have been generously invited to be guest writer and interview subject on the blog of Portland writer Dave Jarecki, whose previous guests have included John Morrison and Bruce Weigl.

The interview is here.

Thanks for taking a look.

Gustavo's Virtual World Tour

2008-11-12T08:01:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time ZZ Top proclaimed "I'm bad, I'm nationwide."

In these days of globalization and the Internet we're all nationwide, and worldwide for that matter. Badness, however you define it, comes separately.

With all this in mind, I've listed below places other than the United States where online sellers are offering The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo.

If I have missed any countries, please let me know.

The list:

Australia

Canada

Czech Republic

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Hong Kong

India

Indonesia

Italy

Japan

New Zealand

Norway

Republic of China (Taiwan)

Republic of Korea

Republic of South Africa

Switzerland

United Kingdom

If Poetry Journal Call for Submissions

2008-11-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

Since my work has appeared in Issue 1 of If Poetry Journal and is forthcoming shortly in Issue 2, I am pleased to note that If is now complementing its print life with an online presence. Editor Don Ilich is a man of taste, if not yet wealth. His own poetry has appeared in well-regarded publications including The Iowa Review and Fourteen Hills, and he has studied with instructors including Mark Doty and the late David Foster Wallace. Don is circulating a manuscript or two, and it is only a matter of time until you will be able to buy his books.

The call for submissions goes like this:

If Poetry Journal now has an online component to its print journal. It is seeking poems to publish, 2 or 3 a week, along with reviews of poetry collections and interviews with writers. To submit, please send 3-5 poems (in the e-mail, no attachments) to editor Don Illich at ifpoetryjournaleditor@gmail.com. Please say in the e-mail that this work is for the online journal. What we like: poetry influenced and inspired by writers such as Thomas Lux, Jennifer Knox, Tony Hoagland, Sandra Beasley, Dean Young, Frank O'Hara, Jeffrey McDaniel, Denise Duhamel, and Billy Collins. Obviously, no payment but the esteem of eyeballs everywhere.

San Antonio Mariachi Festival

2008-11-06T14:44:00.000-08:00

It's official.

My reading at the San Antonio Mariachi Festival is set for Borders at the Quarry in San Antonio on December 6 at 2 p.m. I look forward to seeing a great many parents and niños of all ages and backgrounds at this event.

Above are images of the postcard being sent out to promote the festival. The back includes the schedule of events, which on the night of December 6 culminates with a concert by Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, the original Best Mariachi in the World, established more than 100 years ago.

Approximately twenty thousand people are expected to attend the festival, including one thousand aspiring and professional musicians. Gustavo and I are only a small part of all this, but we are a small part of something great.

New Mariachi Review

2008-11-05T07:57:00.000-08:00

So far, so good.

Gustavo is making his way in the world quite nicely.

The newest review, and also a very positive review, is on The Reading Tub, which includes a "Little Kid Reaction" of "Our daughter picked this out of a pile."

I believe that makes her a focus group of one. Thank you, young lady.

The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo

2008-11-03T08:19:00.000-08:00

One month and two days ago, my first children's book, The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo, was released in bilingual, Spanish and English editions. In the parlance of publishing, it "dropped."

Several pages of the book and some preliminary sketches appear on the blog of young and abundantly gifted illustrator Dani Jones.

Life has been a little different since October 1. I have accepted an invitation to read at the San Antonio Mariachi Festival in December, and I plan to start DC-area events shortly. Watch this space for updates.

The reviews so far have been positive. Publishers Weekly affiliate Críticas has given Mariachi a starred review. In an interview with Raven Tree Press publisher Dawn Jeffers, writer Noël Baca Castex says the staff of Críticas has "fallen in love" with the book. A second positive review appears in a roundup in Washington Parent.

The most recent good news came on Saturday, November 1, when I learned that Mariachi has been selected as November's "Libro del Mes" by Latin Baby Book Club. Every few days I also learn that a library has added a copy to its holdings.

Not surprisingly, I believe that every home in the Americas and many in the rest of the world should own a copy of one or more editions of Mariachi. Fortunately, The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo can be ordered through all major online sellers and through bookstores. The competition for shelf space at bookstores is fierce, to put it mildly, but if enough people start asking for a book things can change.

In upcoming posts I'll note some of the countries where online sellers are offering Mariachi, and I'll do my best to explain how someone named Smith takes on this subject. There are reasons.

"Now I Don't Where to Begin"

2008-10-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

Elvis Costello--quoted above--has a point.

I can start by saying that the world does not desperately need another blog. Who would disagree? I am reminded of Rilke's statement that the beauty of silence is such that one must have a good reason to break it. The same could be said for white space.

With this in mind, I won't be posting updates on what I had for lunch, nor will I be posting rants on my political, social and environmental views, of which I have plenty.

This blog will be about what I write, or try to write, what I manage to publish, and where I'm reading or where my work is getting reviewed. I'll try to be succinct about all of these topics.

I write poetry, essays and reviews, crime fiction and literary fiction, and more recently work for children. My one-act play "Dig" has been published and produced, and there will be more news on that as time goes on. My second collection of poetry, Settling for Beauty, was published in 2005, and my first children's book, The Best Mariachi in the World/El Mejor Mariachi del Mundo, was published on October 1. The reviews so far have been good.

There will be more when there's more to say. Thanks for taking a look.